Category Archives: Cogging for Kibble

No Really

Seriously, why didn’t any of us catch some of these before the book was typeset?

Meer, meer, meer.

No, they’re not tragic or drastic or hold-the-presses kind of things, just phrases I would have arranged differently or words I would have substituted if I’d read the book laid out like this. Maybe when the next book comes back for copy-edits and so forth I’ll reformat the text so it looks Real and The Right Size, and maybe then I’ll catch more of these things.

Spent a couple of hours this morning setting up my freelance account and profile with the new company, and getting to know all the ins and outs of the web interface for assignments and such. I also downloaded a few instructions that were updated since or missing from my original info packet. Good to have on hand. I added them to my file of hard copy references.

Okay, back to the proofs.

A Quick Hello

Hello, dear readers. I have the boy at home with me today so I won’t be properly working till his nap and therefore I can’t devote much time to an update, but these are worthy of note:

1. We had a lovely weekend with my parents. More later.

2. The test editorial review evaluation I did in January got me hired as an ongoing freelance editor! Very nice news to discover in the inbox upon coming home after five days away. The company is currently moving so they’ve suspended ops for a couple of months, but they want me to set up my log-in and account and such now so as to be ready when things kick off again. This is extremely happy-making, as it gives me reliable work and income when I’m not on contract to write a book of my own. And as the frequency and number of manuscripts I edit is basically controlled by me (there are a pool of editor/reviewers, you see) I can handle things as the fibro allows, and do more when I feel sharp and/or want a larger paycheque.

3. We get our new-to-us stove this Saturday morning. Hurrah! Only four more days without an operative oven! I have been, perhaps overly optimistically, planning a roast Saturday night with one of the organic beef roasts that I have been hoarding in the downstairs freezer all winter. (Who am I kidding. I’ll start with something less expensive, so I can gauge the oven’s quirks first. There’s a chicken in the upstairs freezer that I’ll do instead.)

And a belated happy vernal equinox to everyone!

From the ‘Why Didn’t Any Of Us Catch That Before?’ File

Argh. Why does it take laying a book out to catch certain errors? Maybe because the formatting really emphasises the flow of things, so you can see where it kind of breaks down. At this point, though, only absolutely essential edits are allowed.

In other news, I’m really liking the proofreading and edit-making directly in the PDF file.

I’m going to have to stop at three, though, because I have to pack for the trip.

Hurrah!

I just opened the PDF of the page proofs for the Pagan Pregnancy book, and it looks absolutely beautiful. This is the final actual-pages-of-the-book layout; this is exactly what it’s going to look like. The design is lovely. Not that I was worried, but it was like opening an unexpected gift.

My day has just improved exponentially.

That Kind Of Day

Bah. I’m going to print out the hearthcraft book as it stands, and read through it that way. I’ll be better able to see things that are missing or need to be moved, things that can be linked properly, and sketchy parts that way. The computer is doing nothing for me. (Well, it’s downloading things, but you know what I mean.) To avoid Tragic Printing Errors I’ll do it chapter by chapter, and via manual duplex to use both sides of the paper. While I like having a blank sheet of paper opposite the page I’m working on so I can make notes, I don’t think I have 240 pages of paper lying around at the moment. Or maybe I do… I think I have a ream of buff-coloured paper I used for a project filed away in my cupboard. I will check on that.

I don’t know if I should print out the PDFs of the pregnancy book page proofs or not. I don’t want to; it would be a huge waste of paper. But I’ve never handled them electronically before; I’ve always done page proofs with red pencil on paper. I don’t anticipate many errors; there rarely are. And my project editor has said that I can either list the errors in a memo and e-mail it to her, or print the specific pages out and fax/mail them back to her. I’ll try doing them them on the computer first. I’ll bring them with me on the trip, along with the latest version of the hearthcraft book. If I can do a few chapters of the proofs while I’m gone that frees up more writing time once I’m home, and reviewing proofs is easier to do in hour-long or chapter-long chunks when away from home than writing is.

There may still be sun in the living room in which to work.

Random Stuff

So I am not at the salon, and my hair is not being cut. There was a death in the family and my stylist is understandably unavailable. We’ve rescheduled for next week.

I still wish my hair was going to be cut before we go down to see my parents.

In other news, my extended extension was no only accepted, my editor told me to take two extra weeks, which was lovely of her. It also confirms my suspicion that she may have been laughing at my original request for three extra days. So now I can go back and forth between the pregnancy page proofs and finishing up the hearthcraft book with no feelings of impending doom or crazed and obsessive calendar-checking. I can also sleep. Which is a good thing.

And in yet more unrelated news, cellists may have an edge when playing Guitar Hero:

On the whole, a musical background seems to help Guitar Hero players. Zach Whitsell’s mother, Betty Whitsell, said her son has played violin, cello and saxophone in the past.

Ming Cheng, a 17-year cello player, said he was able to play the game on the medium level in the store before purchasing the game. He placed fourth in the 16-and-up age bracket on Saturday.

Cello players might have an advantage in the game, Cheng said. He explained that the spacing between the buttons on the controller is almost identical to the spacing between fingers on the strings of a cello.

“It keeps my fingers in shape for cello,” Cheng said. “I don’t have to practice as much.”

Except:

[Guitar player] Bloomfield is able to strum the notes up and down, which helps boost speed, Cheng said.

“I normally only strum down,” he said. “It’s more accurate, but I get tired faster.”

Which is a problem I have encountered myself. So when I saw this really interesting video called ‘Taking Trips to America’ promoting the album Block Ice and Propane by cellist jazz alternative musician composer-type person Erik Friedlander yesterday, I was fascinated. Don’t miss the video of Erik performing ‘Yakima’ at the bottom of the page.

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 55,706
Carrots: Yes. There’s another entire section that’s been linked and expanded, and a new section.

No more daily word yield reports at this stage of the game; it’s pointless because I’m cutting out pages at a time while adding pages at a time, and it skews the count. Instead, we have the overall total and the carrot count.

I just got the page proofs for the pregnancy book. They need them back on — wait for it — my new extended deadline for the hearthcraft book. Feeling even more lame than I felt the first time, I just sent my editor a message asking for a revised extension (which sounds better than ‘an extension for my extension’) because no way can I hand both in on the same day. Just forget it.

Jan brought me a loaf of home-baked bread because she knew our oven had died, which was very thoughtful of her. She also brought me an evil caramel pecan Easter egg, which was thoughtful of her in a very different way. I will need a bit of it tonight to assuage my head from bashing it against my desk.