Well, dear readers, Super Bowl Sunday is over and I haven’t a clew as to who played or who won or who performed. And I am happy in my ignorance, oh, yes, I am happy in my ignorance. No, I spent a lazy Sunday doing lazy things lazily. I got nine hours of needed sleep, got up just after eleven, answered e-mails, and then I began my second pass through the new book. Normally, I don’t do a second pass – in fact, I don’t look at it again until I’ve entered whatever proofer fixes Muse Margaret and I deem necessary and after Grant designs the book. At that point I go through and proof again, and then one further time after we’ve done whatever fixes we’ve done. But this book has been fascinating in any number of ways, from the very idea of it, to Muse Margaret’s initial problems with a character in part one, which thankfully were easily addressed and fixed. But once I’d done my first proofing, I did something that I’ve never done before – I rewrote a few things, cut a few things, added a few things. I have, on occasion, added a little something, but I’ve never at this stage of the game made cuts. I’ve certainly made cuts – in the first memoir I cut twenty-five pages out of the ending, but that was before I ever printed out the book for proofing. But each and every little change, and they were all fairly minor, has been for the better and very helpful.
But in going through part one a second time, just to make sure I’d gotten all the fixes right, I saw a few other things that I thought needed adjusting, so I made those notes as I went along. Again, very minor stuff, but stuff I thought would help smooth out a few moments here and there, and a couple of minor cuts that I thought would result in a better flow from thing to thing.
I took a break and rustled up some Wacky Noodles and it was a really good batch. About six ounces of pasta and I ate it all up whilst playing on the computer. I then went back to proofing and got two-thirds of the way through part one, at which point I called Muse Margaret to discuss the changes I was thinking about. She loved all of them and each of them continued, in her mind, to make things stronger. Then when I was talking about one little section she said something that she felt would also be helpful, something I hadn’t really thought about until the moment she said it. And boy was she right. It may have been the best of all she said to me, and it required three little additions and one minor adjustment, but those little things made so much difference to this one section that I could not have been happier. When we’re through with this go-through by the end of today, I’ll get the three proofers all those little changes just to make sure there are no typos or problems. It really only involves, at this point, about a page-and-a-half if that, all in. But even without the fixes, I really am fond of this story and the way in which it’s written. Either something gets to me or it doesn’t, and if it doesn’t it just isn’t right. Sometimes it takes a bit of time and trouble for something to get to me, but this one does and the little adjustments keep making it better, at least for me.
After that, I tried to find something on the Flix of Net to watch, but there was not one thing that interested me. I must say, it’s been slim pickings this past month and I may be ready to be done with old Netflix. If anyone has any suggestions, send ‘em my way, as I do know not everything shows up, as with everything these days, it’s all algorithms.
I went to Ralph’s briefly, just a few things I needed, and then came home and proofed the rest of part one, again coming up with a handful of things to run by Muse Margaret, although nothing major. Two additional short cuts and a couple of word things.
Today, I will be up by ten, I have some telephonic conversations to have, I must finish casting the Kritzerland show and get the songs chosen, and then I’ll eat and proof part two of the book. My plan is to finish doing that by four-thirty, so I can have the conversation with Muse Margaret and get whatever there is into the book and then get those things to the proofers. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, then relax in the evening.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals and trying to finalize the contracts on the next two Kritzerland releases, which are really good and which I think will do really well.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have telephonic calls, finish casting, and proof the rest of the book, then have a telephonic conversation with Muse Margaret, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What interesting movies, new or old, have you seen lately? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to keep proofing and hopefully improving the book in small ways, because, after all, the proof is in the proofing.