Category Archives: Cogging for Kibble

Finished!

I have just returned the copy-edits/rewrites for the Pagan Pregnancy book. Go me! Finished in under a day, with a minimum of trauma and angst! Okay, that may have been because I let the suggestions and questions and deletions brew in my subconscious for a week… but whatever and however, it is done and I am awesome.

For the first time in a while I feel like I actually did some work, as if I accomplished something. I’m having so much trouble settling into the hearthcraft book — it doesn’t feel coherent or cohesive yet, and every time I sit down to work at it feels like a struggle — so this was a relief. I never thought I’d see the day where I thought handling copy-edits for a book I’d written were a relief.

The next time I see this should be when the Fed Ex delivery person hands me the box of page proofs.

Grawr

I’ve had three virtual baskets of second-hand and new research books waiting for me at on-line retailers since early December. I couldn’t order them because we didn’t have the money at the time.

Today I skipped about paying bills with merry abandon, and then I went to confirm and place the book orders.

All but one of the second-hand ones had sold. And they sold within the last two weeks, too, because I checked at the beginning of January when I went back to writing the hearthcraft book, to make sure they were still there.

This makes me cranky. I’ve used an hour and a half of time trying to track down affordable replacement copies. I’ve given up in three cases; I’m waiting to hear shipping quotes from two sellers on eBay for another.

Life would be so much simpler if I wrote about things about which libraries carried books, so I could just borrow my research material instead of trying to find it in odd corners of the world.

On the other hand, now I also get to place orders for gifts, which were also put on hold for a while. So there is much pleasure in that.

Outrageous Fortune

That lovely USD advance cheque? I lost $50 on the exchange rate.

ARGH!

There’s a huge psychological difference between $X000 and $X000 – $50; it takes that number in the thousands column and knocks it down a whole step, making it feel like a thousand less when it’s really not. I depend on that extra fifty to couple of hundred dollars the exchange rate brings me on my small to medium-sized US cheques to spoil myself with a book or a sweater or something. Stupid exchange rate, bouncing above and below parity. When I looked the day before I got the cheque — which makes it two days ago now — the exchange rate would have made me a hundred-ish dollars. Boo.

But I found two Easter Creme Eggs on my desk when I came home just now, so all is well again.

And I read this on Metaquotes, too, and it made me laugh:

Klingon Kittens

They have a very tribblish trilling noise. But they wrestle all the time, like Klingons on leave. OMG, My house has been invaded by Klingon Tribbles! “We are mighty kitten warriors! purr purrr purrrr! Bring us more kitten blood wine while we wrestle and do other adorable warrior things.”

I wonder what Klingon is for “Today is a good day to — oooohhhhh string!”

And Now, We Wibble

I just sent off my test evaluation for the freelance job. I’ve been going over the review for the past hour, tweaking and wibbling and tweaking some more, and wibbling some more…

I want them to like me, to like my work, and how I handled the review. My review isn’t quite like the sample they sent me, but then, the manuscript I reviewed didn’t have the same kind of problems the sample review seemed to indicate its subject did. Maybe they’ll think I was too technical, although those were the problems the MS had. Maybe I was too nitpicky. I did ask for feedback; I hope they give it to me in lieu of just putting a big red X next to my name. Handing the evaluation in three days ahead of deadline may be a mark in my favour, though. (I didn’t want to have it lurking in my peripheral vision all weekend and then taking up another day of work on Monday, that’s all. Focus, get it done, get it out.) I’d like this job; it would fill in the cracks nicely, and I could take on work as I needed it.

I am achy and very sick, and my head feels like its stuffed with cotton soaked in rubber cement, and I officially feel wonky thanks to my sinus medication. This test has taken a lot longer than I’d scheduled for it, simply because I can’t think straight. (That and it’s the first time I’ve done one, and I’ve had to keep referring to manuals and guidelines and such, and it’s a 325 page novel. It will be much quicker next time.) As a result I haven’t done any hearthcraft writing in the past two days, so I feel panicky and behind, despite the fact that the test evaluation qualifies as paying work, and despite only needing to write 1,333 words per working day to be finished by my deadline. I am okay. Things are fine. It is the truly horrible cold talking to my inner critic and messing me up.

And on that note, I’m going to lie down on the floor to try to stop the dizziness that’s currently menacing me and my self-confidence. I feel like a wet noodle.

ETA at 4:55: Invoicing is a good thing. Except I’m so out of it that I wibbled about the format and phrasing of my regular, used-it-for-years invoice form. Someone knock me out, please.

Oh: I will hear about the job in about a month. Coincidentally, that’s when my payment for doing the test eval will arrive.

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 15,600
New words today: 2,161

Better. Much better. This was all done by transcribing some notes I made in bed the other night, and running away with ideas (ha, I originally typed ‘ides’) that needed to be explained or explored. If I can manage to do one or two longhand pages of notes before each writing day, things should stay this good. It was nice to sit down and work out things I’d thought up two nights ago; it felt like I’d already done the work, although a couple of pages of longhand notes do not directly equal eight pages of writing, of course. It’s more like I laid the groundwork.

Just looking at how parts of the manuscript are expanding, I can see that I’m going to end up cutting or reducing other areas that were going to be entire chapters. Them’s the breaks. The good thing is I can cut a handful of sections that I was including for the sake of completion. Instead, I can point to them and say, “This is worthy of exploration but outside the current scope of this book. I recommend researching it to further support your own work.”

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 8,800
New words today: 1,250

Five hundred words before a two-hour nap (the nap bit was intentional, the two hour part was not), the rest in the hour post-nap before I went to get the boy. The five hundred took longer. I’m remembering that my most productive work hours are between four and six. The problem now is that I have to leave at 4:45ish to collect Sparky.

What I’m currently struggling with on this hearthcraft project is the balance between spiritual and practical information. Ideally, one would explore the spiritual associations of each practical bit of information, but that’s just not possible. I’m at the throwing information down on the page stage of the process, and I keep thinking in the back of my active brain that it all should be much more meaningful. There is plenty of time to go into the spiritual aspect of all these practical things once that practical things are down. Baby steps, brain. One thing at a time.

Today’s amusing tyop: ‘crate the ambiance’. Because you can’t let it be catching, goodness no.