Copyedits and Coffee

124rf.com

After a month of only obliquely thinking about the book, the manuscript is sitting in my inbox this morning, fresh from the copy editor.

I'm filling up the coffeemaker.

Not that there's a lot to review from the editor, just a lot of looking and watching and double-checking; but I've found over the past month that some information that was accurate in May is not accurate in July, due to the usual switch-ups that occur in the travel industry. New tours, cancelled packages, additional contact information, and with my ear to the ground I've been making mental notes to check and re-check many listings in the book. Add copyedits, and I've got quite a week ahead of me, for sure.

abcnews.go.com

Maybe I better grind some pre-emptive coffee, too.

Thank goodness edits didn't show up, yesterday. I'm struggling to recover from a head cold and cough, the hard drive died in my trusty Mac, and my husband is away fishing for salmon to keep us viable over the winter months.

Today is better. Mostly because my son figured out how to make me coffee. At eight, he's pretty talented, that kid, so I think I'll keep him around.

Next step, the cover. And THAT is going to be a sticky point with me. I want flashy, bold, and bright, full of images that will make potential buyers say "Ahhhhhhlaska!"

But that's next. Today is today, and I better get to it.

joe-ks.com

Right after I make more coffee.

On Summer and Writing

Kayaking Fox Island. Ahhhhlaska.

Pardon the absence, but I've been having summer. Delicious, watermelon-splattered, sunburned, real-deal Summer. Alaska has missed out, these past few years, and we are duly obligated to spend as much time outdoors as possible. My son leaves the breakfast table in a hurry these days, anxious to meet up with the Evergreen Street Biker Gang and another morning of tag, races, and the cheap yard sprinkler I bought on sale last non-summer. Hubster and I spent a weekend at secluded Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge near Seward. Life, in a curvy sort of way, is pretty good right now.

Not a bad draft, I think. 

Web Guy came through with a set of spectacular maps that impressed the UA Press production editor, and we met a few weeks ago for a final viewing and the official send-off. According to the "Steps in Process from Proposat to Book" sheet, still hanging above my desk, we are now in the phase of "Manuscript Copyedited." In a few weeks I should be seeing the framework of what will eventually be "Alaska On the Go: Exploring the 49th state with children."

Then, summer weather or no, I'm back at the desk, feverishly reading and reviewing and changing stuff for the final time, and working on a cover.

UnCruise. I do it.

In the meantime, I'm off to southeast Alaska as the host of a Kids in Nature trip with UnCruise Adventures, a small ship cruise line based in Seattle. Seven days in Glacier Bay, Alaska, with no internet, no phone, and no deadlines.

I can deal with that. Oh yes, indeed, I can.

Alaska On the Go - It Went!

The family "peaceful place," important because we do need some peace after all this.

I really, really, REALLY wanted to get the manuscript completed by the time our family hopped aboard an airplane to our former home of Port Angeles, Washington. Since the trip was vacation and not work, it was important to all of us that The Book not impede with fun, and I tried to honor that request by my husband.

As anyone who has ever written a book can tell you, a manuscript becomes an infant, needing constant care and attention to thrive, so being able to launch the words back to the Production Editor at University of Alaska Press was a welcome concept, indeed.

And so I did that via dropbox last week.

Web Guy is making maps that should provide a little bit of orientation to readers, even if they have a GPS and local tourism guide. I have photos all safely tucked away at UA Press.

The coolest part? Seeing the freelance editor adding changed files to our shared dropbox folder, knowing that he/she is creating an actual book out of words that came from my brain. My brain - MINE. The one that is so often scattered with schedules and deadlines and grocery lists and worry for bills to pay.

That's amazing.

Am I too Attached?

There it is. 

I've been staring at my laptop for several hours today, wondering if the end is near. Boxes checked on the University of Alaska Press guidlines sheet, photos and captions sent, individual chapters saved in a new folder.

Wow.

Perhaps I'm ready to send in the manuscript for the final time? I'm as apprehensive about this as I was ushering my son to kindergarten a few years ago. Am I ready? Are you ready? Is Alaska ready?

The psyche vs. intellect duel is an interesting one, and today I feel like the psyche is winning. Writers are always told to "end at the ending" and "quit dragging," but in this case the ending seems to be there, it's just my helicopter parenting of this book that's keeping me from hitting the "send" button.

But I think it might be time.

After two years, I'm sure my husband would say so.

Ready, set......

The Many-Headed Monster

Thanks Manyheadedmonster.wordpress

I like these guys. Part comfort-keeper from my childhood watching "The Muppets," part definition of how I feel, today.

Today the book looks like an algebra equation married to a term paper. My checklist requires a spell-checked MS (manuscript), saved text, in both a single document and one divided by chapters, and the heads. 

Lots and lots of heads. 

Heads, for those of you who don't know (and I didn't before I became a journalist), are the quantifiable divisions of any manuscript. Introductions, chapters, sections, and sub-sections are all heads. In the average manuscript, there are usually two or three, depending upon the subject.

A guidebook, as you can imagine, has a lot. 

So, today has been spent labeling [A], [B], [C], [D]. I'd like to add an additional one for [F]..udge. 

Read, label, count, lose count, re-read, label again; it's an exercise that appears eerily similar to math. 

I hate math. 

But I love this book. 

Perhaps this is all a ploy to keep it that way.

Building a Book!

Cute little sand angel diversion.....so little, this kid was.

I never gave much thought to the mechanics of "building" a book until I became an author. Never will I take for granted the hours of work by lots of people to create the book I reach for on a store or library shelf.

Photographs have to be viewed, sorted, discarded, sorted again, and eventually converted to TIF files with captions and [ ] and .tif and "quotes" in a very particular way before bundling them all up and sending to University of Alaska Press. The guidelines sheet sent to me by Acquisitions Editor is full of scratchy notes and little doodles I made during phone calls. I'm still trying to figure out what some terms mean, and have to break down some sections, word by word.

Maps need to be made, a huge undertaking, and the past few weeks were full of desperate emails and frantic telephone conversations with all sorts of entities before I finally wizened up and emailed my web guy who said, "Sure I can."

Once all boxes on the checklist have been crossed out, everything is shipped up to Fairbanks, where a team of freelancers works in collaboration with the production editor who ultimately becomes my touchstone concering all things draft and galley proof, and eventually, final copy of Alaska On the Go: Exploring the 49th state with children.

I haven't even touched the text itself, yet. That's the easy part.

Who would have thought that 95,000 words would be considered "easy"?


Countdown to deadline: 29 days

Working Through It

Thanks for the kudos, blogosphere friends. This book project certainly has been a community and industry effort. With so many people invested in its success, launching Alaska On the Go: Exploring the 49th State With Children should be easy. Right?

After the glow wore off a bit, and after AK Dad and I had more than a few glasses of wine to celebrate, paperwork started to flow into my inbox with the speed of an Alaska snowstorm. Questions, mostly, about me, about the book, about people I know who might talk about the book, and places that might sell the book; all succinctly disseminated in a collection of University of Alaska Press formatting that I, of course, have already screwed up in my attempt to complete.

One reason I chose to approach UA Press is their desire to engage authors in the publishing process every step of the way, from initial marketing to some level of publicity and selling those books.

Hours and hours later, I'm navigating the process of my life as it stands to be for the next month. As I did while I was actually writing the manuscript, I've carefully (mostly) scripted my days.

Typically, I write in one-hour blocks, two if I've got a particularly hot deadline. But I write, every single day. I feel guilty if I don't, which may or may not be normal...

Also questionable is the fact I set my alarm to chime for a break, then I get up from my desk and do stuff. What stuff?

Laundry.  

Cooking (that's a damn fine pork shoulder in the oven, right there).

Running with dogs.

I go about the business of living for 30 minutes or so, then set the alarm again and head back to the inner world of wordsmithing.

Repeat.