Axe That Prologue!

Was at dinner Sunday, and a woman across the table had just read Twin Motives, a book I edited. She loved it. I was thrilled.

My team of editors had a quick discussion last Friday about a 2,000-word piece one of my colleagues had sent around. It was the first 2,000 words of one of her mss.

What a great discussion. From 2,000 words came the topics:

When a prologue and/or epilogue is unnecessary
Viewpoint
Showing v. telling
Religiosity – when is a book over the top; how do you approach it; one way is to address character flaws as well as realistic dialogue
When a character is too perfect – what makes a good hero
Dialogue
Narrative breaks

Not only were these great topics to discuss, but I was able to see how each of my team members would have tackled the book. I was the only one who said the prologue gets the axe. And I was right.

I see more of these meetings in our team's future.

the day of the purple dress

STATUS REPORT: Tired after a long day. Looking forward to moving offices Thursday. Need to do some cleanups tomorrow lest I fall too far behind on my to-do list. Losing the light at the end of this month's tunnel but know it's there. It always is.

Worked on a long MS today. It's good. I jibe with what the authors are saying. (This is nonfiction.) However, the book is 116,000 words long and needs some serious cutting. It's not been too difficult thus far. However, I feel brain cells dying daily. This baby is making me stupid. I had a lot of trouble focusing today on what, on a normal, non-pregnant day, would have been easy thinking and reading. I would have left work rejuvinated and ready to get home to one of my side reading ventures. I love to read. Instead I left work mentally exhausted. Hopefully it was but one bad day.

Bad day nothwithstanding, I still rocked that MS.

There are few things more fulfilling than making great edits on a book and knowing the author is going to put forth the effort to take his or her book to the next level. Good writers work with their editors, trust their editors. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am saying that you should have a dialogue with me, and just as much as I should listen to you and care about your vision for your book, you should hear my vision and care about what I have to say. After all, I have your book's best interest in mind. We should work together to meet the objective of putting the best book we can on the market. That is what partnership publishing is all about, folks.

I love my job.

The Cliffhanger

MORNING REPORT: Team meeting to discuss issues, questions, and exciting new ideas. Went well. Topics discussed included: title length, passive voice, how soon should dialogue show up in a novel, and cliffhangers.

One of my editors asked me today, "Do you have a particular book you could show me that does a really good job of switching scenes?"

Me: ???

Then she said, "All of my authors tend to do things like write, 'And back to such-and-such,' or 'Back in Detroit...' to denote setting or scene change."

I cringed.

"That is sad," I said.

We then got into a conversation about cliffhangers, hooks, and stopping in the middle of action at the end of a chapter. This seems obvious to me, but I guess I do run across a lack of it in books at times. Fortunately, I've not had to deal with the "Back at Sarah's house, Joni was cooking dinner when..." issue.

So, how does a writer keep the reader clear when they're switching settings a lot? Well, first, is the story structured well? But then come to mind things like: they've got good characters that the reader doesn't have trouble remembering. They have good conflict. They employ the use of narrative and chapter breaks. They end their chapters with HOOKS!

I don't know how many times I've written to an author "No hook" at the end of a chapter. I've probably written this before here, but if your character is going to bed at the end of chapter two, so is your reader. What you really want is for your reader to NEED to turn that page and read chapters three and four, etc. If you stop a chapter in the middle of a question or great action and then switch to a different setting, the reader shouldn't have as much trouble finding their way back when you come back to said conflict question later.

There's obviously more to this, but these are the first few things that come to mind.

Now to editing...

Look at that foot!

Wow. What a moment. The ultrasound technician, who surely has a more professional title that I don't know, points at the screen and says, "Have any guesses?"

I knew right away. It was a girl.

"Yes. It's a girl."

Collin, from over my shoulder, practically shouts, "No way!" And tears of joy or something are running down my cheeks. I can't believe it. I'm going to be a mommy. I'm going to have a little girl.

Collin is going to be such a fantastic father, and she is going to love him so much. Her name is Drue (middle name pending). Drue Barnes. And she's a cutie pie.

The Cranberry Hook

My goal today: hit goal and don't get frustrated. Don't wear my emotions on my sleeve. This is difficult when hormones are raging. I've felt a failure the past two days, but I feel more on my game today. I am referring to staff squabbles about which I can't go into detail here.

What is today's goal? To finish this adventure book, set up a couple of interviews, and either review backmatter for the books I've finished or complete another quality control review. Word total: 28,000ish.

I'm wearing my first maternity pants today. One of the women in our church kindly graced me with a tub of clothing. She's a bit smaller than me (the pants I'm wearing today probably fit her at six months and just barely fit me at twelve weeks), shorter, but I think the clothes are going to work! And they're cute. What a money-saver and a blessing.

I made a huge cranberry salad last night with the help of my darling husband. If you enjoy cranberry salad, ask me for this recipe; it is outstanding. We're having Thanksgiving at work today. The design department, illustrators, and we editors are all getting together for food and activities at lunch. Should be keen. I hope there is some leftover cranberry salad to take home (for Collin's sake...and mine). You never know. It's always either a total hit, or the group of people you try to feed it to hate cranberries/new things. I'm telling you, this is the best cranberry recipe on the planet, and it's so simple!

And it smells good when you're making it.

Back to work. Remember: if you're working on a novel, no matter the genre, work to hook your reader at the end of each chapter. If you end the chapter with the doctor coming in the room and saying, "Oh, it looks like everything is going to be fine!" your reader will put the book down frustrated and might not pick it up again. Leave the character bleeding in the hospital bed!

Tylenol Woes

I feel like I should change the name of my blog since I haven't blogged about writing in a while. I would if I had the energy (and the whining begins). You can read at least one of my October writing blogs at: http://tatepublishingeditors.blogspot.com/

I'm lying on my couch with a pouding headache, listening to football fans shout "Boomer! Sooner!" from my not-open window (it would be so much more romantic somehow if the window were open). I hate game day traffic, but I have to admit I enjoy living this close to the stadium. I enjoy the stadium sounds. I enjoy the crowds, even though I scoff at them during the day in my scary judgmental way.

I wanted to go to the Dixons' tonight, but my headache and level of sleepy kept me from it. I am sick of being sick. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it is dim. I actually threw up this week. It was the first time in over ten years that I threw up without helping myself. I don't mean to say that I've suffered bulimia. Thank God I haven't. But I have felt bad enough before that I thought physically getting sick would help, so I stuck a spoon down my throat (tmi?). This time: no spoon necessary. I was just drying my hair Tuesday morning and suddenly, oh, I'm going to toss that milk I just drank.

Since I'm having more bearable days to go along with my bad days though, I have been able to eat a better assortment of foods. For a while there it was Taco Bell grilled stuffed burritos every day. Now I can't even think about fast food without gagging. I like this particular change. What I don't like is never cooking and being so picky every day. I also can't wait to find water refreshing again.

Enough feeling sorry for myself.

I'm so excited to be back with the band. :) I started singing in church again last week and made it to practice again today. I love those guys, and I hate feeling out of the music loop. Now if only the trumpet (which is a marvelous instrument, and Wes is a genius playing it; I'm just not myself right now) would stop making me want to vomit. Soon enough!

I leave you with Halloween pics:


Collin's first jack-o-lantern. (Note the fuzzy orange precious on the left.)


You can tell who the artist is. (Hint: not me.)


My work crew. Seventeen Depps for Seventeen Editors.

P.S. I only have three books to read this month. Should make for some great edits, and I can't wait to delve in. Still, it's a short month (can't believe the holidays are here), so I'm going to have to buckle down more than usual. I'm unable to keep up with this blog the way I'd like, but (if you care) know that it's because work keeps me offline.

Crackers have become a large part of my life.

I am pregnant. I have the four tests to prove it. (Not really. They're long gone.) Why did I take four tests? Well, I've never been pregnant before, so when the second line showed, but only just barely, we weren't sure. Now, I was pretty sure. I thought, there's no way a line would show if it didn't detect this crazy hormone in my body. But hubs wasn't so sure. I don't blame him. The line was really light. Oh, and I'll never forget Collin's sound when I walked into the bathroom, looked at the test, looked at him, and paused. It was a nervous sort of chuckle-choke. And he smiled.

When I took the test the following morning, the second line was still light--but darker. Yes, darker. Still, C wasn't sure. I did some reading up online that day, and I was sure. But I just had to have his agreement. Just had to. So when he went off to work that day, I went to the store, grabbed some pre-natal vitamins and another test--this one the one that reads "preganant," "not pregnant." He was up at the lab and needed a broom, so I brought him one, along with a little stick that read "pregant." He was speechless.

Why the fourth test, you wonder, if you remember my mention of it? Well, I'm just paranoid, that's all. I took another five days later because I was feeling really cra(m)ppy and not feeling sick, like I was just sure I would feel, so blah blah blah. I'm paranoid. But I'm also pregnant.

I don't know how much I should post about this--this being my editing blog and all, but I thought I'd writing something. We'll see where it goes from there. We did talk names last night. I much have spent two and a half hours in a book of names only looking at "Boys' Names" and come up with next to nothing. Girls were a different story. We've got some "working titles." We're getting there with boys. I keep gravitating to B names though, which you'd think wouldn't work since our last name is a B name, but I love me some alliteration, and if you do it well, it can be strong.

I'm not naming my child B**** just because it's alliteration, for any sickos who really think I would.

Oh, now I really want to post about names, but I fear I would only be copying my friend Courtney, who is due oddly on the same day as (insert correct pronoun here. One thing I will say is, I think I'd like to narrow it down to two per sex. That way when the baby is born, Collin can behold him or her and decide his or her name. (Let's say it's a her.) "Ah," he will say, "she is clearly Blythe." He's good at naming that way. He saw the one pound seven ounce cat I brought home and almost immediately said, "We shall call her...Marigold." And she's lived up to her name ever since.

If marigolds are a really fat flower.

Onto editing. Tomorrow marks the end of another month. I tend to blog at the end of the month. I've decided I will not stress next month no matter how much my job begs me to. Now matter how much this computer begs me to worship it, I won't. I'm thinking dialogue. It's written on my hand--the word "dialogue." I think I'm going to whip up a sheet on this most difficult concept and start a dialogue about dialogue with my department. I promise I will post it here, for those who need their word fix. Until then, thank God for Jesus, without whom I would crumble to pieces.

Chronologicalication

I'm working on a book right now that is supposed to be a chronological study of a particular book of the Bible. Vagary!

Although the author attempts to create a chronological study, it (yes, I refuse to submit the sex of this questionable writer) fails at every turn.

The whole issue begs the question: do I have the wrong draft? Did this draft get entirely flubbed/flipped/flopped around in transmission? Perhaps this person has a computer program I've ne'er heard of.

Because it is utterly impossible that this person meant to repeat itself (there it is again) so many times, nor is is possible that this person does not see how the book is not chronological but illogical.

Unfortunatley, it is possible, because this IS the correct draft. I spoke with the author yesterday. We have work to do! But it shall be done!

"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.