"She's got some thing with her mother. It's tough."

We've recently started watching Seinfeld again. (The joys of Netflix.) I realize the show is on television every day, but seeing as we don't have any sort of basic cable in our home, I've not been inundated with reruns of Seinfeld and Scrubs and Wings (yes, Wings) and Golden Girls and whatever else is constantly on the tube these days for years. This classic, hilarious, timeless show is just as good as new to me again, and I love it.

Speaking of weird. We're still finishing up Twin Peaks.


YES!

Our dear friend Kyle says there is a subplot coming that we're going to hate. I'm on the hunt for this alleged subplot but have yet to encounter it. Bring it on, David Lynch!

As for work, we've met the end of another month, and my Friday deadline looms. I've finished all first edits and am thrilled about two books this month. One a contemporary mystery, the other a textbook about God and country. Wish I could write more, but I need to finish this episode of Seinfeld and get back to work. Perhaps one day I'll be caught up.

Oh! But first, quickly, the Olympics! The one sport I cared about more than any other: the marathon. I have to say I was heartbroken when our guys came in ninth and tenth, though that was a first for USA, which is fantastic. I really wanted Hall to place. Really. But he's only 25, so there's always 2012 (and even 2016). Strange to think that far in the future.



Think I'll go for a run. Forget television!

And as for a word of writing advice: stop capitalizing everything. Writers like to capitalize things that don't need to be capitalized. Are you one of them? My advice is: get comfortable with Chicago Manual of Style's capitalization laws. That's right, I said laws. Get comfortable wih any style guide's capitalization rules, because they are all going to tell you similarly to stop capitalizing everything. It's distracting, just like italics. And who wants to distract their reader? Not me said the editor.

Nuptials

Another month down, another to go. I just organized my email files. I have so many of them now. A lot of people hate Outlook. Perhaps I'm just uneducated, ignorant, not cool, but I like it! I have folders within folders and folders and more folders, adn they're all right there for me to easily behold and navigate.

I'm sure there is many an email program that allows one to do the same things, but I don't care. I like Outlook.

Until it crashes. What does it mean when a window pops up and says, "Would you like to auto archive your files?" Where do those files go?

Do you know, I don't really care.

I finished sending out all edits and clean ups today, and it felt great. I approved three proofs, which also felt great, and now I'm down to sending out final scores for the month and nitpicking with a handful of MSS that need to be ready for layout by the end of the working day tomorrow. I think I can get this done; however, I've got meetings upon meetings tomorrow. Four meetings? I think so, yes, four meetings.

I'm looking forward to next month, I think. We'll see how a full month with a regular workload goes. I'm hoping it will go well.

I'm "friends" with the new RUF intern on Facebook now. I can't wait to meet her!

What else, what else...

I am going to be 30 a week from TODAY. That is a strange pill to swallow.

Last night I went through a bunch of old grad school notes. Note about pieces I was writing; notes from class; actual old MSS; handouts. It was a lot of fun. I think I'll use a lot of this old work to craft conceptual notes for the editors on my team. I might also post them here. We shall see.

Not much else about the pub world today. I'm too happy to have a bit of a day of rest tomorrow. And then comes the new load Friday.

I also came across a bunch of old songs I used to play. Many of them I had written, and I didn't even remember them. I had a lot of songs in the early 2000s. I did a lot of writing. In fact, I found a bunch of "song doodles" in the class folders I was going through last night. I might have to rework some of those lyrics to new music (since I don't remember the old music). Might be fun. C and I have been talking about "jamming" lately. Although we always end up sitting around, working in our free time, not doing fun stuff like jamming.

Sorry so scattered. More quality blogging to follow.

No to Nuptuals!

Weddings are a beautiful thing. They are a picture of Christ and the church, a great mystery. Lovely. Exciting. I cry at every wedding I attend, without fail.

We went to a beautiful wedding last weekend in fact. Kim was a beautiful, blushing bride, and I mean beautiful. Wow. It was so much fun spending time with friends I hadn't seen in a while, and I can't tell you how excited I am that one of those friends is moving back to Oklahoma.

So, weddings are great.

Not so in print.

If you are considering writing nuptuals into your novel, think long and hard before you implement them. How much of the grand event do I absolutely HAVE to include? How many details MUST be in the story? Who is my audience? What percentage of my readership will I alienate with an extravagent wedding scene? These are good questions.

Further, in evaluating the necessity of the nuptual, ask whether this is just you taking the opportunity to be "descriptive." If it is, be assured you can employ brilliant description elsewhere (or less description here). A wedding slows the pace of the story exponentially...ultimately because conflict is key. Unless there is a shooting in the middle of the wedding; unless there is something that hinders the hero, some conflict arises there, it probably doesn't need to be there. The story MUST move forward!

Reading at Home on a Friday Night

Yes, when my husband and I feel like we're not being social enough for a Friday night, we just remember: we do things with friends on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays are for us, for relaxing. Well, Sundays are for the real relaxing. Saturdays are for working, and tonight, Friday nights are for working. Why? This is how my day played out:

8 a.m. - Got to work an hour early. Set up shop at my desk, which involves turning on my computer then going to the cafe for coffee, coming back (checking the thermostat on the way) and hoping my computer has booted.

8-9 a.m. - Caught up on email with a couple of authors, made notes in their files, opened Pandora.com, put in my ear buds, sent out two staff emails, and got started reading. Goal for the day: at least 21,000 words.

9-10 - Got a new cup of coffee, ate a nectarine at my desk, and kept reading.

10 - Meeting with team member.

10:30-11:20 - Read like a maniac, make lots of comments, try to view minimal email.

11:20 - 3:20! - Batman: The Dark Knight (That's right: field trip...for artsy purposes.)

3:20 - 4:00 - View minimal email, answer teammate's questions about issues he's having with a couple of authors, read?

4 - 5 p.m. - Meetings!

Did I meet my reading objective? A resounding no. Will I meet it tonight? Perhaps.

The man that v. The man who

I got caught up a bit more at work today. Good thing.

I've been thinking about common mistakes writers make and thought I'd address a few of those. (For those of you who read Pub Rants, yes, I'm unabashadly copying her, but this is genuinely what's on my mind.)

1) Stick to the story question(s). If you want to go of on a rant, fight the urge if that rant does not further the story. Description for description's sake does not work. It is boring, and you will lose your reader, as well as the interest of your editor. I want conflict, and I want it now, and I want to feel like I'm moving toward resolution.

2) Do not include the first description that comes to mind unless it is brilliant. Chances are, your best descriptions will take time. I've sat in front of my computer for five minutes trying to think of a way to describe a character's nose (and whether it was even worth describing). I ended up going with strawberry seeds. Stop being cliche. There are many great resources out there that discuss description, where it belongs and doesn't, etc. I'll stop there.

3) Learn the basics and copy edit your material. Don't send an agent or an editor anything less than your best work. If you're not good at syntax, have a friend who is read over your MS before you send it out (lest your work be thrown away). I'm in a different boat, as those MSS that come across my desk are contracted. But when I see five errors on page one, I cringe. Do I really have to trudge through this?

--As a side note, this may sound harsh, but I assure you: New York is harsher. And I am not even close to New York.

4) Work with your editor. When I make comments, heed them...and probably employ them. Your editor knows her stuff. She is not perfect, but she has been studying the craft since she was eighteen. She knows story and has good ideas for you. She also cares about your work.

So Busy and Still Slacking

I got back from camp with the kids Sunday around midnight. I only now feel back to normal, yet I'm still tired. So is life. I have so much catching up to do at work that I'm having trouble seeing straight, yet I can't make myself dig into the book I should reading right now. It is about Richard III. It's an interesting premise...a woman looking for the "real" history of Richard III and being basically hunted down by a group of Druids. Present day. New York. New York City Public Library, which always and forever will make me think of the original Ghostbusters. I need to start writing more on this thing. Resolution: blog more. Easier said than done.

Camp was amazing. I only wish hubs had been able to go. The ocean, on a clear day, was absolutely beautiful. So much so that I couldn't drag myself out of the water. The sand was like sugar, and the sun felt so good on my skin. Until my skin broke out in hives, but that's another story (and why I did NOT come back with a tan).

Driving over 2,000 miles is difficult, but the crew I was driving was wonderful. How I love the CTK Norman kids. How I love beach games. How I love reading.

TGIF and Medical Murder Mysteries

Turns out Tate is the second best place to work in Oklahoma. No joke. This has been measured, and we have literally been awarded this title.

Because of this, they gave us the afternoon off.

Of course, I'm still working. This month's schedule looks crazier than last month's. I'm reading a mystery right now (title TBD). It takes place in Hall Park, Oklahoma. That's right, written by two gentlemen who go to Norman's own Wildwood Community Church, and I have the pleasure of reading their work. It's quite good.

The thing I am most impressed with is characterization. Their characters are real from the moment you start reading. Original action. Original description. I'm helping some with logical flow of dialogue, but man oh man, this is good stuff. Very exciting and fast paced. Good work, gentlemen.

I can't wait to find out whodunit.

At Month's End

Listening to: "Sonata for keyboard in D minor, K. 434 (L. 343): P.498"
(Bach Station)

Hot.

So...

I finished all of my work for the month about thirty minutes ago. The only thing I didn't do was check for commonly misused words in one of my manuscripts. I didn't do this because as I was composing an email to the author, I accidentally sent it, which meant she expected the manuscript to follow shortly. So I went ahead and just sent it, along with a complete email.

Work accomplished this month: 10 new books (359,879 words), 8 cleanups (old books moving toward layout), 10 ready for layouts (completed, filed, and moving on!)

I dare say that's pretty good work.

I am starting on a book for next month as soon as I finish this post. The authors...men from the church I used to attend in Norman. Crazy. I don't know them well; however, we did meet when they came to visit Tate. Their book (co-authored in case you didn't figure that out) is a mystery, which I'm thrilled about, as I love mysteries. So I should get started. But first...

A team of us editors ran in the OKC Marathon Relay last Sunday, and we were awesome. Granted we came in AFTER teams with names like "Eating Your Dust" and "Not Gonna Make It," but we DID finish, and as previously stated, we were awesome. Just check out Ben's get up and try to tell me we weren't.


I'm trying to get Collin excited about the "rock 'n' roll" half marathon in San Antonio in November. I think I'm really into this running thing. (Thanks be to Julie and her willingness to share her Runner magazines with me!)

Germany and Japan

Listening to: Rhapsodies (2) for piano, Op. 79: II. Rhapsody in G Minor, Op. 79, Johannes Brahms. (Good for a rainy day.)


I've recently found that I can create composer stations on pandora.com, so I'm trying out new dudes: started with Beethoven, then Bach, then Brahms, and most recently Rachmaninoff (or Rachmaninov...which is it?!). I've never listened intently to classical music (thought about what I was listening to). I've never studied it. I still don't know much, but I think I'm picking up on simple things. The only bad thing is pandora doesn't play ONLY the composer chosen to represent the station. Still, I'm getting the general sound out of each artist, which I like. And it's great background music for the day.

I've just started my final book for the month. "I'll Never Forget You." This is the story of a young GI and a Japanese model. Love is in the air, people. I don't often read romances written by men. I'll try to remember to update.

I had my montly conceptual discussions with senior editor CW yesterday. I believe I redeemed last month's poor conceptual discussions wherein he was using me as an example of "good" conceptual discussions, and I bombed.

CDs are when I talk to CW about the books I've been editing that month. I usually try to bring two or three big ideas that I'm presenting to each writer to the table and talk about how I hope to help the author maket his or her book better. I was able to dig a little deeper with a few of my books this month, so it went well. I got to talk about dialogue structure and conflict and story arc, etc. I like talking about these things (not just redundancy and punctuation, and blah blah blah). It's easy to go into conceptuals and have critcisms, but what I think he's looking for are solutions to problems. I like being able to bring these to the table, because I have good solutions when I have the time to think about them (I give Collin the credit for teaching me to sit and really think about my work). It's just sometimes difficult when you're dealing with ten books in a really hard month.

This month has been good. I am thankful.

Back to Japan...

Deadlines

Both the end of the month and the beginning of the month are difficult. I have manuscripts going out and manuscripts coming in, and getting everything situated takes a few days. Authors also call incessantly during these times. But that's okay. They usually have good questions that need good answers. I'm finding that work goes home with me at the end of the month and at the beginning of the month. Not so bad since I'm a workaholic. God made six working days and one day for rest. I can live with that, so long as I can work on the six!

I have a deadline of 115 pages tomorrow. I'm about halfway there. I finished a children's book, two juvenile books, and twelve pages of a novel about the Holy Mother today. I thought the Miriam book would be spotless, but it turns out the guy's sentence structure is a bit too fancy for its own good. Like, so fancy it doesn't even make sense fancy. So, we'll work with that.

I should get some rest.

Armageddon

Currently playing on my iTunes: Manifold de Amour, Latin Playboys, Desperado Soundtrack

I am trying to finish a book about the end of days. My deadline looms (Thursday), and I just can't seem to get through it. Not that it's bad (or...). The worst thing about the book is that the author doesn't use close quotations (and sometimes periods).

Note to aspiring authors: Clean up your work. Don't submit basic errors. That is the sign of an unprofessional author.

As far as the storyline, it's going to be the new Left Behind series, or so the author thinks. And I might argue that it could be. Her characterization and description are very good. The story is solid. She sounds like she knows what she's talking about. But did you like the Left Behind series? I didn't. It was a quick read. That was about it.

Back to inserting correct punctuation.

Speed

I can't believe how fast we communicate. It just hit me for some reason. I was checking icanhascheezburger.com (one of my favorite blogs...you'll find it to the right) and came across a picture I thought Courtney would appreciate. So I quickly downloaded the picture to my My Pictures file (on my new work laptop! yay!), opened up gmail and attached the picture to a note and sent it to her. This took me maybe thirty seconds.

When I was a teenager I would have had to wait until I got home for the day to call her and tell her about it. And chances would be she would never be able to see it because she probably wouldn't have the Internet. Or is she did it would take her quite some time to dial up and find the picture.

I know thousands have posed this question. But ARE we TOO in touch? Are we too spoiled. Maybe that's a better question. This is my first laptop. I don't know how I lived without laptop before. That is sad. I now carry two communication devices with me at ALL TIMES.

I guess that's why it is so important to rest Sundays. At least one day a week get away from everything. Get out of touch. Be with those you love. Take a nap. Don't turn on the television. Play your guitar. Read a book. Ahhhhh...it's wonderful just thinking about.

But I AM thoroughly enjoying my new job. Oh, how I am. I sent my first edits out to my children's book authors today. It was very exciting.

And now for that picture I wanted Courtney to see...

There are probably few of you who get this. I wouldn't have gotten it if she hadn't told me about Soylent Green. I'm LOLing just thinking about it.

The Holidays Approach

On a totally unrelated note, I wish I were more humble, especially at work.

Chinos + Sweatpants

One of my students wore sweatpants and Chinos to class today. It was classic.

I think it was Doug who introduced me to the idea of "wearing his sweatpants." For example, when the dog is lying on its back with its legs splayed out, "He's wearing his sweatpants." Or who was it that said, when you decide to wear your sweatpants that's when you've given up on life?

I think there was an episode of friends where Chandler's gf broke up with him, and he went through a post-breakup "sweatpants phase."

I wonder what is going on in my student's life today that he wore sweatpants with Chinos.

Pictures

First off, let me say I have no idea why these pictures turned out blue. I will try to fix this problem, maybe. I realize this blue tint takes away from the luscious look of the cake and the cuteness factor of my kitten. I guess I will just have to deal with this.

So Boyd Street had its 4th birthday last week. This was the cake, and it was awesome.


Any of you who need a cake decorated for an event, call Alyson Stearns-Bell. She is amazing.

Here I am with Emily and John (owners of the mag).

Sweet earrings (if you can see them).

And this is an updated picture of my sweet kitten, Marigold.

Awwwwww ......... (except for that blue haze).

Not too much new. C took his first round of generals. Awesome. I'm working at the mag and nursing a bad mood. Not so awesome. We're going to the intelligent design v. evolution lecture tonight. Should be awesome.

Awesome.

Incriminating stories are my favorite stories.

I'm finally feeling settled into the semester. Ultimately, life is good. Collin takes his generals this month. I am reading some great books. I'm enjoying teaching three classes, and the magazine is running along swimmingly (I think). I can't wait to go to Missouri in Oct. and then Beaver's Bend in Nov. Yippee for fall and trips with friends and family! (although I could do without the weather turning cold)

I didn't sleep well last night and at 12:30 got so frustrated I kicked Collin and woke him up and all but shouted, "Don't wake me up until 7:30. I can't sleep." I also mentioned something about his legs twitching in his sleep, but he knows I wasn't blaming him for keeping me up. What he really knows is that I am quick to lose self control and am very hateful when I can't sleep. So what does he do? He gets up this morning and gets my breakfast stuff ready and puts together my lunch and washes the dishes I didn't get to last night. He says he did this bitterly whilst trying to love me. I say it doesn't matter. I appreciated it, period.

School!

I'm sitting in my new office in Copeland Hall. (Come visit, ya'll!) I like it. There is a nice, big window and a nice, big tree rooted just outside. I walked to the union today thinking I was going to purchase a huge Diet Coke but decided to walk next door and just get a DC out of the vending machine for $1. It's plenty, probably not much less than the huge one I could have bought for well over a dollar.

I never mentioned the rest of my birthday presents. My nice husband set me up with all the jogging gear I need. New shoes (from the in-laws) and a new (first-ever) iPod Shuffle! I love it. It makes jogging so much easier and much more fun. It's tiny and clips onto my shorts. I only have to keep myself from buying a bunch of tunes now. What tune would you buy first? Or, if you're an iTunes junky, what was the first tune you ever bought?

Well, our first issue of the semester came out yesterday and yours truly left a flagrant error on one of the more popular (I think) pages of the mag. I am embarrassed and feeling as if I have failed on a huge level. Oops.

Fall Approaches!

I started reading Harry Potter VII night before last. Collin got the book for me for my birthday, and when we visited Barnes and Noble Saturday, and I wanted to buy the book, he decided he'd better go ahead and give me an early birthday present. I did not complain.

I want my other birthday present now too, please.
Thank you.

I have to admit I didn't love the book at first. There was conflict, sure. I probably should have reread number VI first, sure. But I just didn't love it. I kept going, of course, because that's what you do (most of the time). And now that I'm about 200 pages into the book, I'm definitely into the book. I want to go home right now in fact, snuggle up with my new kitteh, Marigold, and read until my eyes get tired. Then I imagine I'd take a little nap, wake up and read some more.

What makes this new little obsession worse? (I'm still chewing gum, so there's that, too.) I'm really worried I'm going to find out how the book ends before I get there. Worried? Really?

Yes.

Onto other life news.

Summer school is over, and I have three weeks off (after I finish grading, which I will do the moment I hit "Publish Post") before a rather busy semester begins. Collin won't be taking classes, so the next few months should be much less stressful for him (once generals are over), but I've now officially got three jobs. I'm thoroughly excited ... I am a real freelance editor now! ... and at the same time hoping it won't be too difficult.

I know it won't. No use in blogging about worry that isn't really worry. I should get to grading.

Gum G-Gum-Gum ... GUM!

My gum addiction has resurfaced. I have gone through three packs of Orbit Spearmint in the past few days. This is a problem.

Awww

Forgot to post this after Kirsten sent it. Love this picture.