...to Grandmother's House We Go

We are heading up to see the in-laws for a few days. This is an off year, so we won't see them for the holidays. Since they haven't been here since Katie's graduation, we are overdue for a visit. I have my homemade pickles and peach butter packed to take along, which puts me in position of being the favorite daughter-in-law. Wait...I'm the only daughter-in-law...but no matter, they truly appreciate my canning efforts so I enjoy sharing with them.

Kirby just had a bath this morning, with the bonus that he gave me a shower. He'll smell nice and fresh in the car now. He is a bit of an anxious car rider, so I think I'll give him a small dose of Benydryl to help calm him. He's not bad, he sits on the passenger's lap, but he's squirmy and pants heavily which gets annoying after the first hour. He always acts like we are going to drop him off somewhere.

I have sold a couple more books this week, and my printer has pretty much fired me after I dared to complain about 44 of the newly printed books having streaks of black across the pages. Now I'll have to scurry to find a new printer so that I have an adequate supply of books for my December book signings. It's always something...

It's Tuesday and I Know Where My Books Are

Yesterday I picked up my books at the printer. As the boxes were too heavy to carry in, I brought an armful in with me to admire. As I set them on the kitchen counter, I noticed an unnatural wave in the sides of each of the books. It looked as though the books had been exposed to humidity. When my husband came home, he confirmed that the books did not look right. Of course that ruined my sleep last night. I kept worrying about the books. If they all had to go back, how in the world am I supposed to do a book signing on Sunday? At 4:30 this morning I gave up and read my new Nora Roberts book. Nothing like some good sex scenes to take your mind off your troubles!

I called my production manager at the printers at 8:30 this morning and broke the news that we have a problem. He asked me to bring all the books back, which I did. They will try to use a dehumidifier on the books, and if that doesn't work they will reprint all of them. I reminded him of my book signing, and he said he will have all the books ready by Friday at the latest.

For a followup on the silver lining to this big, black cloud, see my new blog about writing and publishing my first book at writeformation.blogspot.com.

It's Friday, Do You Know Where Your Books Are?

My books were supposed to be ready by Wednesday or Thursday. I waited impatiently until Thursday afternoon to email the printer as to their whereabouts. "They are printed and in the queue to be bound and trimmed. I hope to have these ready by tomorrow." Again I am reminded of the similarities between birthin' a book and birthin' a baby. "Oh, you'll have this baby by Thursday, for sure," comforts the well-intentioned OB/GYN. Easy for him to say, he wasn't carrying the elephant around on his bladder. And the baby had no intentions of coming on Thursday. Why don't these people just say it will be another week, and then when you get the delivery early you can be happy about it?

In fact, I don't need the books by today. But that's beside the point. I want them today. I wanted them yesterday. The sooner I can get a book into the hands of my local bookstore, the sooner I can convince her that my book is worthy of her limited shelf space. Because I have my first book signing on November 8th during the Old Webster Christmas Open House, and I'd love to be able to tell those who don't purchase the book that day to shop at her bookstore for it.

On another note, my birthing coach, AKA Bobbi Linkemer, suggested (strongly, I might add) that I should be blogging about my writing and publishing experience. The topics just don't fit that well with this blog, which is mostly for fun, or with my house history blog, which is mostly to help other people discover the history of their homes. And they certainly won't fit on my MOG Blog, dedicated first to being the mother of the groom and now to being a mother-in-law. So, it is with some trepidation that I announce my new blog, Write Formation (writeformation.blogspot.com). We'll see how many of these I can keep up with.

New Mom

I feel like a new mom again. Though hopefully this new baby won't cost as much as the other two! After months and months of labor (okay, so it was an elephant pregnancy), I finally was able to pick up a bound copy of my book yesterday. It is just my proof copy, but it looks like the real deal, color cover and all. One of the benefits of using an in town printer is that I can pick things up instead of waiting for them to be shipped to me. One of the downsides is that this printer is not located in the best area of town. A six foot high fence surrounds their property, complete with an electronic gate to keep the unsavories out. The gate was open when I arrived as a delivery van had just pulled into the parking lot.

Once you pass that hurdle, you must buzz at the door and state your mission in order to be allowed entry. After picking up the proof, I was afraid I had come to the Hotel California - "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave". I couldn't get out of the parking lot. Assuming that the gate operated on a sensor, I drove slowly towards it. Several times...I'm probably on a YouTube video somewhere. Fortunately I spied an employee around the side of the building taking a smoke break. When I asked about the gate, she said she would come around and let me out. She had to punch in a code for the gate to open. All of which made me wonder if I was supposed to park on the street in the first place. Sure, protect your employees but let the paying customers fend for themselves.

The first thing I noticed about my book was that the colors were off a bit on the cover. I couldn't quite put my finger on the problem but it just didn't look right. When I compared it to my printout at home, I could see a bit of difference in the color scheme. I know that what I see on my screen, what my designer sees on her screen, what my printer produces and what a professional printer produces can be four different things. I emailed my designer to see if she wanted to take a look. She definitely did, so I drove it over to her house. Actually the printed cover looked much closer to her screen than mine. But she agreed there was too much red on the cover. Ah...too much red, that was the problem.

I contacted my production manager today and explained the issue, and he said he would talk to the art department to see if they could handle the color change. If not, my designer would need to send them a revision. Fortunately, the gods were smiling and it was fixed in-house. I got a revised cover emailed to me this morning, and I gave approval for the printing to proceed. I should have all my babies by Wednesday or Thursday of next week! Does that make me a centuro-mom?