Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I finally did it--


Cleaned up, formatted, and converted a manuscript for publication that wasn't practice and didn't belong to a friend.

I did a proofing job for a gal and she asked about the cleanup and formatting. I was honest and said I wanted to break into that market (such as it is) but hadn't done any yet. I offered to do hers for free and if she wasn't happy, then all she'd lost was a week or so of time and she could hire someone with more experience. She agreed. So I dutifully cleaned and formatted and converted. It was a great test as it was a really long manuscript, just over 90K words.

Anyway, she was pleased and said she'd recommended me to others and told her editor as well so that she could recommend a quality proofreader and formatter to others. And there we have it!

Wanda's book is a 90K+ word historical romance ficton taking place in biblical times.



I've also been working with my critique partner to get two novellas published, though I've been wearing my editor hat for the last couple of days. I'll switch to cleanupper, formatter, and converter in another day or two when we're sure the books are ready to go. Can't wait...

Even though they're not my books, it's very exciting!



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Monday, October 28, 2013

I wanna talk about me!


Well, don't I always? ha ha ha!!!

Really more of an update, I guess...

Sonshine needed to get his eyes examined and we made a (Saturday) morning of it. Mostly because the optometrist opened her doors later than I expected. I mentioned a while back that I thought I was at the very beginnings of the big change we women go through. A few months ago, I started having trouble seeing things up close--words on a page or my cross stitch projects, etc. I bought a couple pair of magnifying reading glasses to get me by, but figured I ought to have them professionally evaluated. Glad to report that Dr. Bean said my eyes weren't bad enough to require prescription glasses just yet and that the magnifying reading glasses were fine for a while longer.

Homecoming for Sonshine is next Friday--Saturday was the first homecoming parade in quite a few years. They modified the parade route, so I couldn't walk to it, but the school's not that far, so DD and I met DH up at the school to watch. Sonshine had to march with his JROTC battalion rather than the band.

 In his new uniform as we were leaving to drop him off...




 That's my boy right there up front on the far left...



After we dropped him off to get ready for the parade, DD and I went to The Home Depot and I got a pumpkin! (I got other things too, but pictures of that later.)


Before...


After several hours of work, this is the result...

Yeah, I so had to go there! But I wanted another pumpkin, so I bought another at the grocery store...pics of that once I carve it.

How did you spend your weekend?



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Friday, October 25, 2013

Keeping busy offline...


You know I'm almost tired of being online. I'm not sure why. Might have something to do with my depression. But I feel the need to remove my Internet presence. It just seems like everything is so inter-connected there's no separation and anonymity anymore. Not that I want to necessarily be anonymous, but there's something easy about hiding behind a screen name. Maybe hiding's not the best word. Maybe protecting yourself is a better way to phrase it. Or separating your professional self from your personal self.

But short of removing it all...I'll just stay offline.

I've been keeping busy with lots of other things. Reading, as mentioned Wednesday; cross stitching Christmas projects; football season; just hanging out with my family. Not back to yard work yet though...

One of the things the kids and I do is play Rock Band. It's an Xbox game. I play drums. We go in little cycles and we've been back on again. I like to play for several reasons... mainly because the kids ask and are still willing to let me play with them. I also like to play because of the obvious benefit of music to the brain. Despite the fact that I almost always play the easy setting, it's not always easy. I've found a disparity in what the game deems easy. But I digress... I like to play because I want to keep my brain active and challenged as I grow older and this is a fun way to do it.

It took me ages and ages to earn my first 100% (meaning I didn't miss any notes I was supposed to play), then it took me another age to earn the next. But I've earned two 100%s in the last few weeks!

Here's my most recent accomplishment...Minority by Green Day, one of Sonshine's favorite bands.


How do you like to spend your offline time?

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Almost forgot again...


Still pulling out of my dip into depression. Stuff happened and it didn't do my body or mind good. But I stopped listening to the news, so that's helped.

Meanwhile, for the first time in five or six or seven years, the high school is doing a homecoming parade. Sonshine will be marching with his JROTC batallion, not the marching band. I'm really excited, so expect some pictures on Monday.

In other news, I'm reading a book:



So far, so good. This was made into a Lifetime made-for-TV movie. Might just have to check it out... Then again, I haven't been much into movies lately.

Read any good books lately??


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Monday, October 21, 2013

M.I.A....


Yep, I missed posting last Wednesday and Friday. No excuse other than I had a lot on my mind, work was busy, and since I didn't have anything exciting that I wanted to share, I just plum forgot.

But we're -- okay *I'm* -- back, though still with little exciting going on.

Other than -- it's fall!!! Friday night while we were at the football game, a cold front moved in and we now have some true fall temperatures. It's so gorgeous. I even had to break down and turn on the heat. It hasn't run much, just needed to flip it over so that if we needed it, it would come on. Yesterday morning when I went to the grocery store, it was 44* outside. Brrr....

Pretty soon, it's going to be leaf raking time again. I'm gonna stay on top of that chore as best I can. And seeing as how marching season is almost over, it should be easier. Maybe I can even get back to other regular maintenance, not that it's no longer stifling hot.


Today's pic is of Friday night's scoreboard with fifty-nine seconds left in the game--





Yeah, we spanked 'em...


I hope you enjoyed your weekend!



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