Bookmas Day 6

Taking a break from the San Francisco pictures to talk about copy edits, since that's what I'm working on at the moment.

Once I hand in a book, I heave a big sigh of relief, but I know I'll see that manuscript again. And I do. After a certain amount of time, copy edits come. They used to show up on my doorstep; now they come on my computer. (The copy edits I have in hand now are for my June 2012 release, Bedding Lord Ned.) Hopefully, the editors will have identified all the problems--awkward sentences, places where I've been inconsistent (changing the hero's eye color for example), sentences where I've misspelled a word (maybe "it" instead of "if") or made some other error.

Copy edits are my last chance to make major changes to the story. If it's been a few months since I've seen the book, I may have lots of changes I want to make. In this particular case, I just handed the manuscript in at the end of September, so I'm not finding much I want to change--or at least I haven't yet. And I'm also hunting for typos myself. I think I might have been a copy editor in a former life--I'm finding little mistakes that no one else has flagged. Which actually makes me happy. If I didn't find any errors, I'd worry I'd let my brain and eyes glaze over.

Once I send the copy edits back--they are due on Monday--I'll see the story one more time in page proofs. This is the manuscript laid out like a book; changes at this stage can cost money, so I really try to limit myself to correcting typos--which hopefully, if I've done a good job at the copy edit phase, will be few and far between. And I know that no matter how closely I or anyone else edits, there will be mistakes that make it into print.

The other thing about copy edits and page proofs--I think many writers are so sick of the book by this point they want to throw it out and start over. I know I do. But I've learned to tell myself--or have my writer friends tell me--that I'm just too close to it to judge any more. I've been reading it in a way no sane reader would. I'm seeing all its warts, real or imagined. I want to be done with it and get back to the book I'm working on now.

It's time to kick this baby out of the nest and let it fly on its own.

And now the Bookmas clues: 1. Not a story by H.G.Wells. 2. I like to have my characters quote this guy.

Bookmas Day 5

Our main reason for going to San Francisco was to see our third son and his fiancee and meet some of her family. (She and they are native Californians.) After spending the weekend with them, though, we were on our own. We took the BART--much like our D.C. Metro, which I think might have been modeled on BART--into the city. We came armed with maps and recommendations of sights to see and places to eat.

This, I think, is a picture of the Ferry Building. It's a great place to eat--it's filled will all kinds of restaurants and sometimes a farmer's market as well. On our first tourist excursion, we had lunch at The Slanted Door at the recommendation of my son's future mother-in-law. She didn't steer us wrong--the food was interesting and delicious. We went back to the Ferry Building later in our trip to have breakfast at Frog Hollow Farm and shared a sandwich from the Cowgirl Creamery. Our daughter-in-law to be recommended the Blue Bottle Coffee Co. but since neither of us is a huge coffee drinker, we gave it a pass. I was afraid the caffeine would have me wired all day and night. We did enjoy browsing all the shops--you can do that virtually here.

Today's Bookmas clues: 1. My oldest son has written a book. He gave me the manuscript to look at, and one of my "helpful" comments was that he was using the British, not the American, spelling of this word that appears in one of Jessica A's titles. 2. One of the words in the other title showed up on a poster that became part of a copyright battle.

Oh, and an update to Monday's blog. My husband informed me that he didn't have that jeans jacket in college--he didn't get it until he got back from the Peace Corps a couple years later, which was still a few months before we met in the fall of 1976.

Bookmas Day 4

My mother-in-law is a huge golf fan, so we had to get a picture of Pebble Beach. (The golf course here--I'm not sure what this beach is called.)

I'm afraid I don't get the whole golf thing. Well, I don't mind mini golf--you know, when you try to get the ball into the clown's mouth or between the windmill blades--but "real" golf? Meh. I agree with Mark Twain that: "Golf is a good walk spoiled."

But I suppose I should also confess I went to the University of Notre Dame and am totally uninterested in football. I will occasionally be lured into watching a little of the Super Bowl to see the ads and have some of the snacks--and I'll usually watch a little of the Puppy Bowl--but if the whole thing was cancelled, I wouldn't shed a single tear.

I like competitive swimming, which my husband thinks would be improved if it took a page from mini golf and added obstacles. Actually one outdoor long course meet did have a little of that going. A duck decided to go for a swim, too. He (or she) kept switching lanes. The swimmers were doing backstroke, so they never knew, but the spectators were amused. (Though maybe not the parents of the swimmers in the duck lanes--but the duck never interfered, so all was good.)

Here are my Bookmas clues: 1. One of the names of this company reminds me of a children's game. 2. If we all go digital, we won't need these any more.

By the way, I do like to clamber up on rocks, much to my height-averse husband's consternation. Here's me viewing Pebble Beach:

Bookmas Day 3

I think this was taken at Point Lobos State Reserve. (I definitely should have done something with these photos closer to the time they were taken.) We had great weather the entire trip, but you can see here that this particular day was overcast--I think that's fog hovering at the top of the picture. Consequently, some of the shots look as if they were taken in black and white--but you can clearly see that the camera did do color. (In the old days there was color or black & white film...I guess now there are camera settings?)

I'm not usually so colorful. The windbreaker I dug out of the back of the closet--it seemed the perfect weight for the trip. I think I bought it when the kids were playing soccer, thinking that this way they could find me in the crowd. It was when they still wanted to find me, so they must have been in grade school--which would make this jacket somewhere around 15 years old. The hat is new. It wasn't my first choice, but it was in stock at L.L. Bean (which is where I got the windbreaker years ago--I've got a fair number of L.L. Bean items in my closet) and I needed something for the trip. I've been trying to keep out of the sun, but it's also a rain hat--AND it has a string to keep it on when the weather gets windy, which it did a lot on our hikes along the coast in San Francisco.

The scarf...well, my only other choice was a burnt orange, and that really would have been over the top.

My Bookmas clues: 1. This piece must have given Kim's brain and tongue a work out. 2. Our summer swim coach, looking for a "G" rated film to show the teens on the team, rented a film version of this novel. I guess it was a little slow for the modern--well, ok, this was probably about fifteen years ago...hmm, maybe that windbreaker is older than I think... Anyway, the swimmers, even the girls, thought the movie was endless. (Looking online, it says it runs for 130 minutes...in black and white.) It became a swim team joke.

And speaking of old jackets, my husband owns--and still wears--a jeans jacket he got in college, long before he met me.

Here's proof that my colorful getup makes me easy to find:

Bookmas Day 2

This was from one of our hikes--we did a LOT of hiking. And Mr. M took a lot of pictures, but I promise not to show you them all. I will confess, though, that I now have a serious case of camera envy--as reflected in my list for Santa.

My Bookmas clue: This book is set in one of my favorite cities, but not in my favorite time period.

Bookmas Day 1

Another San Francisco picture. We've got seagulls around here--I'm not quite sure why, since we're not on the coast--but I've never seen one hang out on a car's roof. Maybe the Californian seagulls are more laid back?

Here's my Bookmas clue. (You can find the puzzle here.)

I'm pretty sure I've never read this book, though looking at the copyright date, I certainly could have. I did see the musical of a slightly different name and, no offense to Jessica who's my agent and clearly an excellent judge of literature, but I found it quite creepy.

Back to blogging

Where have I been? Not lying around on a beach like these elephant seals.

After I finished the first draft of Bedding Lord Ned, I went into revision mode. It takes me about a month of intense work to get a manuscript whipped into shape. Then we dashed off to San Francisco to visit third son who moved there this summer--drove alone cross county with his mother trying very hard not to worry--and his fiancee and her family. We visited these seals in the course of our travels. Too bad we don't have sound on the blog...well, maybe it's a good thing. They make rather rude noises.

Once back home, it was time to start the next book. And then copy edits for my May novella, The Duchess of Love, showed up via computer. They were my first experience with e-edits--my old eyes were NOT happy. And then, when I'd barely caught my breath, the novella page proofs were on my doorstep.

Anyway, I'm back now because my agent is doing the twelve days of Bookmas again. You can read all about it here. The first clue goes up tomorrow at noon EST...once I figure out what the clue will be. Any you might get some more SF pictures.