Day: April 16, 2009

4 PM
I’ve lost count of the number of times this past week when I have wanted to curl into a ball and cry. I’m pretty sure the number is higher than 20. I don’t actually do it, because that would use time and there isn’t any to waste. So I keep going. Hours worked so far this week, Thirty-Seven and counting. I still have two working days left before next week.

The layout is really taking shape, but the copy edits are tedious to enter and Howard has far more pictures to draw than we originally calculated. The most difficult of which are the technical drawings of Hands doing tricks with cards. Many cards. Only Howard’s back is killing him today and so instead of drawing 20 pictures he has drawn three and is now off to the Chiropractor. He guesstimates he has 60 pictures left to draw. He thinks he can do it…if his back will stop hurting.

The 9 inches of snow did not contribute to us having a pleasant spring break. It particularly does not help when it turns into 6 inches of slush. Grass is fun for playing. Snow can be fun for playing. Slush is not fun for anything except getting cold and wet. The kids are still housebound. So I dragged out a copy of Riven that someone gave us months ago. Kiki started playing and liked it, but the third disc was cracked. No more Riven. So while I was out buying groceries, I grabbed a copy of The Orange Box which contains a copy of Portal. Only when I entered the registration code, I was informed that this code is already in use and therefore invalid. The game store helpfully and willingly accepted the game back in exchange for a new copy that they will order from another store. It will arrive after spring break is over. So approximately 90 minutes of attempting to find new things for the kids to do has resulted in nada.

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6 PM Things feel a bit better. I ate some food. The chiropractor helped Howard. Kiki called a friend instead of moping around. I took a break.

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10 PM Just as I was completing the entering of copy edits, the next set of edits arrived. We’re all feeling pretty frazzled trying to work so fast. That includes our editor. But I’m learning a lot about editing just from using her notes. The first thing I’ve learned is that there is no substitute for an experienced editor. She can tell at a glance how big the font is and how much space there is between lines. The pages all bleed when she hands them back. But every red mark means a mistake that will not be in the finished book.

Tomorrow I need to enter the edits and then I need to print out copies so that they are ready for our progress meeting on Saturday morning.