Well, dear readers, I have been merrily proofing a printout of the designed book. Grant Geissman had called and said to come over so I could show him what I had in mind for the chapter heading and another formatting thing. So, I sat with him for a bit over an hour and we did all that stuff, then went through and checked for widows and orphans. He sent that to me, I went home and put it on a flash drive and got it Xeroxed. This final proofing is always fun, as I haven’t read the book since finishing it. What’s always astonishing to me is that I proof it initially and catch tons of things. Then proofer one has a go and catches tons of things, most of which we do. Then proofer two has a go and catches things that I and proofer one missed. You’d think by then that would be it, but alas, it never is. So, while I’m liking what I’m reading, I’m also catching things – a missing close quote mark, an errant space after a hyphen, the first name of a character wrong during one mention, a global fix that I’d done for a product name ended up doing the fix for something that wasn’t the product name – thankfully, I caught it right away. And even though I’d been really careful when I replaced all the hyphens that were meant to be em dashes, I still managed to miss five so far, even after I’d done a global search and replace for them. I got about seventy pages done so far and I’ll do another thirty before going to bed. I could probably do more, but I don’t trust my eyes after a certain point. I really like the formatting and chapter heading thing we’ve done for this one. We now know the book is 235 pages. But I think it reads well and so far, it moves right along at a steady clip. I guess I can reveal that it’s a mystery novel, but not an Adriana Hofstetter book. That’s basically all I did, save for listening to a wonderful opera by Jean Cras called Polypheme. I’d found it on YouTube and really enjoyed it but could not find a reasonable copy of the CD, a three-CD set. I finally did the other day and it arrived and I liked it even better than the first time. I’d loved Cras’ orchestral work a lot – I discovered him by taking a chance way back in the late 1980s, just because a CD looked like it might be up my alley, which it was. And the interludes in this opera are spectacularly beautiful but the whole opera is. I suppose I should read the libretto, so I know what’s what. And now, I’m listening to the soundtrack of Air Power by Norman Dello Joio, conducted by Eugene Ormandy.
Yesterday wasn’t a horrible day. I got eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, did some work on the computer, then got the call from Grant. After we finished, I first went to the mail place and picked up one small package, then went to Staples and thankfully they weren’t busy and were able to Xerox and spiral bind the book while I waited. Then I came home, decided on Hugo’s pasta papa for food, used a thirty-percent coupon so it didn’t cast more than if I’d picked it up myself. That arrived about thirty minutes later and it was excellent – not quite as large a portion as usual, but that was fine.
Then I went back to proofing and I bided my time between that and listening to music and at some point, I had my evening snacks – a bagel with cream cheese and an English muffin with jam. Then later, an apple and a peach. Then I proofed more until it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, then it will be back to proofing. I’m hoping I can finish, and that Grant will have the thirty or forty minutes it will take to enter the fixes. Once that’s done, then everything goes to Doug. I have to get the dust jacket flap copy done, and I’m hoping for a blurb or two. Anyway, I’m thinking that no matter what we should wrap Grant’s stuff by Sunday at the latest. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat, and then, if I do finish proofing and there’s any time left, then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow there will be many things to do, including finishing proofing if I don’t today. Saturday is a she of the Evil Eye day, so that means an early breakfast somewhere, and then I’ll try to have a ME day unless we do book stuff, which I’m hoping we will. Sunday, I can relax until we have a Zoom thing for project two at seven – a meet and greet and technical discussion. Then next week is a new month, which I can’t even process, and we begin our project two journey. I’m looking forward to that. And we’ll announce our two new titles as soon as Doug gets around to making the pages for it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, proof all the livelong day, hopefully pick up packages, eat, try to finish proofing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite war movies? I’m not a fan of them myself and find most of them a dreary slog, but I do very much like Paths of Glory, an anti-war film, I’ve never made it all the way through Patton or Midway or Tora, Tora, Tora, or most of the classics of the genre, so let’s hear your favorites and why you like them. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be doing the final proofing of the new book.