Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Back in Canada

The husband, the dog, and I returned safely to the cold north a few days ago. To celebrate we bought the dog snow boots because the below zero (Fahrenheit - WAY below zero celsius) temperatures have been making it difficult for her to stay outside long enough to pee. With boots on, she can now handle a good long romp in the snow (as long as they stay on).

Evidence here:

I never thought I would have to buy my dog boots, as she is very much designed for winter, but it turns out there is winter and there's WINTER. The Starks were right.

The winter solstice holidays have been fun, we got to see loads of family stateside and now we're catching up on holiday time with the Canadian side of the friends and family. So that's all happy and good.

But I wouldn't want you to think that I didn't get any work done over the holidays! After getting Blade's Edge back from my copy editor and dealing with changes and suggestions, I went into a formatting frenzy.

And... I wound up compromising on the whole formatting thing. I did all the formatting myself. However, I have "shipped" the finished formatted document off to a professional formatter to be checked for formatting errors and inconsistencies and to make sure that everything meets industry standards. Said formatter will not correct anything herself, but rather will send me a list of things that need to be corrected and I will fix them. This is all done for a very small fraction of the cost of what it would take to pay a professional formatter to do a custom job (and also quite a bit less than it would cost to have someone else mush it into a template). As a bonus, I learn from my mistakes and am better prepared to do this again next time. :-D

I'm getting so excited about getting Blade's Edge in print. Just a reminder for those that live in or near Winnipeg: January 23rd is the launch party at McNally's. All are welcome.

Well, I think I'm going to call a close to my working day and spend some time with the husband and dog. Wishing everyone a happy new year!


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Blade's Edge Update and Happy Holidays

Well folks, Blade's Edge is cruising along. The copyediting is done (save for a final read over after the formatting is in place). The formatting is almost done. Down to small tweaks. So EXCITING!

For those who have been wondering, I managed to meet back up with the husband on the 12th and after a few days of hanging with Arizona peeps we headed east to meet up with my family for a holiday gathering.

Said holiday gathering is still underway, so I will keep this short so that I can go spend time with family. I've already missed out on a bit of the hang in order to get a kickstarter update published and to address some work related e-mails. Luckily, there have been some quiet moments over the past few days to enable to me to address copyediting changes and to get the formatting well underway.

We're so close to being done I can taste it...

The funny thing is, once the book is "done" and all ready to print there is still a ton of work to be accomplished. But I really can't wait to get this book printed and into people's hands. The launch party is going to be a lot of fun as well.

Alright. I've ignored my family for about an hour and half so far this morning. Time to go be social.

Hope everyone reading this is enjoying a wonderful holiday season.


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Fake it til you make it...

Well, the fun thing about having sent off Blade's Edge to my copy editor, is that this week I have been working on things that have little to do with writing or editing, and everything to do with graphic design and formatting.

Have I mentioned before that I am NOT a graphic designer?

That doesn't seem to stop me from pretending to be one. This formatting thing is... well picky. It's a lot of small corrections. It's a lot of spending time tweaking tiny details and then hoping that they turn out how you think they will.

I know a couple of independent authors who are actually quite successful, but who still format their books themselves. I'm hoping that I can channel some of their talent. Really, I think in this particular matter, as long as one keeps things relatively simple, it's just a question of having the patience to make all the changes and then check them.

In addition to formatting, I am now working on making the bookmarks, t-shirts, and posters for all of the kickstarter backers. Of course, I'm using Juan Carlos' amazing artwork so all I really have to do is decide how to display it. To be honest, the most difficult one is going to be the bookmarks because I can only use a small segment of the artwork.

In other news, I'm gearing up to see my family next week and to see my husband tomorrow! I haven't seen my hubby in five weeks, so I'm very much looking forward to our reunion!

Here is a picture that I took a few days ago of Sedona looking beautiful. Just because.

Now I'm back to playing graphic designer.


PS. This is my 100th post on this particular blog... Not sure how to go about celebrating that, but I thought it warranted a mention. 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014