Category Archives: Cogging for Kibble

Now What?

Today has been busy. I dropped the boy off at daycare, drove through traffic to the West Island, got my hair trimmed, picked up groceries (managing to forget liquid laundry detergent, fabric softener, and iced tea yet again), drove home, checked news and such, sent out queries regarding final details for both projects, ate lunch, and finished/fixed/polished/proofread everything.

It’s one-thirty, and I have just uploaded/submitted all of my work to the various editors and co-ordinators. Yes, all of it. I appear to be done. Pending any further tweaks requested by the clients, that is.

So now that my work time is my own again, naturally my brain is rebelling at actually working on my own writing, which it has been thinking about longingly all week while I’ve been working on things for other people. It has specifically been tugging at me to work on the newest YA novel I outlined last month. Oh, wait; there’s that essay for the anthology I should finish up for Monday. And there’s the workshop outline I need to plan out as well as a bio to submit for the Hamilton festival this fall, also due Monday. Maybe I’ll work on those this afternoon.

Cautiously Optimistic

I think I may have just finished fixing the previously-known-as-the-hearthcraft book to reflect the title change.

And apart from doing some creative paralleling (see me verb your nouns!) in the introduction, it’s pretty much intact and has preserved its dignity. As for mine, well, chances are good no one will even suspect there were changes made. Even you, faithful readers, should you ever read it in published form.

I’m so tired, and the damn headache is killing me. I’ve been taking Tylenol on and off all day, and I can’t bear to listen to music, which is somewhat appalling. It will also make orchestra tonight very interesting.

*headdesk*

Today, I got last week’s manuscript evaluation back, with comments and requests for a few tweaks.

The good? I am, apparently, awesome. And looking at the few edits and changes the co-ordinator did in the evaluation, I am more than on the right track; I am in the zone. They love me. Virtual high-fives, everyone! I am an evaluating goddess!

The bad? I need to rework an entire section because I pointed out weaknesses and didn’t suggest solutions. I need this like a hole in my head. (Actually, maybe a hole in my head would solve the perpetual headache I seem to have.) When am I going to do this? Worse, how? I didn’t suggest solutions because I couldn’t see any at the time. [ETA: Oh good; they need it back tomorrow sometime, so I don’t need to turn it around in the next two hours.]

The other bad? I spent so much time making sure that this, my first official MS evaluation, was okay that I ended up diluting the per-project fee down to about $5 an hour. This extra bit is going to further dilute that. I know, I know, I’ll get better; I certainly won’t stress about it and poke at it so much in the future, now that I know the way I handle it is all right.

I need to go take a lot of Tylenol and lie down for a bit. Then I’ll come back to it and give it a shot.

In other news, I think I have a workable new introduction for the previously-known-as-hearthcraft-book, but I am having a lot of trouble facing the rest of the book to find places to insert title-associated information. I’m so disillusioned about it. I can certainly compromise and meet people halfway on projects, and have in the past about certain things, but this is a really, really bitter thing to swallow.

Welcome To My Nightmare

I just sent in the final piece of material supplementing the first MS evaluation I’ve completed for the new company I’m freelancing for, an e-mail meant for the editorial staff alone summarizing my experience with the manuscript.

In which I misspelled the author’s name.

And this after countless warnings and admonitions in the piles of manuals and documentation I waded through that impress upon reviewers the need to be as professional as possible and as correct as possible, because authors don’t like it when you criticize their writing and make mistakes in you own. Which is perfectly reasonable.

I misspelled the author’s name.

I saw it just as my finger left the send button and couldn’t catch the message in time. I immediately resent it with the correct spelling and a brief note that I’d sent a draft by accident. And it was a staff-only e-mail, not something that was going to the author, thank the gods. But still. What a horrendous way to begin my working relationship with them.

This does nothing for the squirrels in my stomach and skull that are scrabbling away, wondering if I pulled it off all right. I only received three negative pieces of criticism on my test evaluation, but still, you know me; my inner editor is having a field day. In fact, it’s the one whipping the squirrels into a bloodthirsty frenzy. Because a real author is going to get my thirty-one page evaluation, and have to read it and digest it and see someone’s real-live opinion of what s/he has written, and I know what working through an editorial memo of a tech read is like. The point of editing is to show the author how s/he could make things better.

I have to let it go. It’s done. I wouldn’t have been hired if they hadn’t thought I could do it professionally enough.

But AUGH!

Done!

Just waiting to hear back about a minor point before I upload it and it’s done. Then we can go pick up the new car.

I’ve got to learn to do this more efficiently; this took twice as long as it should have. I’ll get better at it the more MS evaluations I do.

Argh And Also Sigh

Why, why, why do I always forget that writing the editorial memo takes a whole day?

I’m still not finished this freelance MS review. I have to make it sound more positive, because I’ve come down rather hard on the negative aspects instead of balancing flaws and strengths. I also have to whittle my comments down to be more precise. I have tons of examples for some but not others, and I tend to say the same thing over and over in different places.

I’ll have to finish it next work day. I wanted it done and gone by noon. Grr.

Monday

I worked all weekend. Saturday morning we went out and about for a bit, but I worked in the afternoon, chasing the end of an idea for the new YA novel and setting things up for the MS review. Yesterday was eight hours of freelance MS review, and I’ll be finished it by the end of today. Then I can turn to changing the hearthcraft book as per orders.

It’s Victoria Day and a holiday here in Canada, so HRH is home. I’m thankful because it gives me a day to work and I don’t have to pay a caregiver. The weather is rainy and cold, which is unfortunate. HRH and the boy went off to the EcoMuseum this morning but I’ve just had a call telling me that it’s pouring out there so they’re heading to an indoor playground instead. I made pretzels this morning and have already finished my second one. I need to have quick and easy food available to me in the mornings, and the granola bars I make to see me through the week disappear in a day or so, eaten as snacks. There’s a new loaf of bread rising too. Over the weekend HRH reset the vegetable bed, tilled our compost into it, and planted peas, corn, carrots, and onions. I forgot about getting seed potatoes, so maybe next year. There’s corn and sunflowers strewn along the side of the house too. We’ll see what happens. All my herbs are coming back, and we’re going to get peppers and lettuce and maybe some cucumbers. We always end up with one or two leftover tomato plants from other people, and I’m the only one who eats them in the house so there’s no point in planting our own.

One year ago today was the live dual-band gig. The year off has been good. I do miss playing, but I only miss the parts where it was going well. I don’t think anyone misses the time eaten up by rehearsals and travelling to rehearsals and home practice. Even if we’d been in the headspace to keep going, various health issues, work commitments, and plain old timetable incompatibility on everyone’s part would have forced us to go on hiatus anyhow. All those things logically preclude a reunion at this time. I am very much looking forward to being at Invisible’s upcoming show and not having to worry about conserving my voice or energy for our own performance.

Unless something miraculous happens (like an anonymous money order for fifteen hundred dollars arriving in my mailbox) I’m not going to have the new 7/8 cello in time for the Canada Day concert. I’m disappointed, but I’ll live. I suspect it will have been sold by the time I can buy it this summer, so I may not have one at all until this fall. I wonder if a home trial of this one is even worth it. I’m glum about it, because it was pretty much the one thing keeping me upbeat about things this past month.

Right. To work.