Everyone Needs an Editor

I know you may think I go a little overboard commenting on your paper drafts, but everything I’ve ever published that went through the editorial grinder came out better. Here’s an image that caught my eye – and I though you all might identify. Yipes, what a lot of corrections and suggestions!  But a lot of them are good, and the whole thing is a rather clever protest against a corporate decision at the Toronto newspaper, The Star, to outsource editing in order to save money. Editors at newspapers play a much more active role in shaping writing than in most forms of publication – and the people losing their jobs think the newspaper will lose a lot of quality in the process.

In any case, I thought it was a funny way to make a point.

 

A little late… sorry

So this is supposed to be my blog from this weekend… totally forgot! My bad. This weekend was really fun! I love Halloween! Especially since you can go to Chipotle and get a free burrito and chips if you have tinfoil on you somewhere Yum! It’s always so fun to see what people dress up as… some people are so creative! Myself not included. The basement mine thing was pretty good… it was really dark! I had my friend’s grip imprinted on my arm when we got out, though, so I take it she thought it was pretty scary haha. Now we get to look forward to Thanksgiving break! 22 days away! I can’t wait to be home and have all that home-cooked food… just have to survive a couple more weeks! See you all in class!

 

Long Weekend :)

I forgot to do my blog for the weekend, sorry!! I am at home this weekend, and it has been great to spend time with my family! I drove to UW Lacrosse on Saturday to visit one of my friends, and drove back Sunday afternoon. It was so fun to see her! We went to their homecoming game, and later that evening walked along the river and ate ice cream. Today was not as relaxing, however. Apparently my mom made an appointment to have our wood flooring buffed and varnished, but didn’t realize it would land on one of the days that I was home. So I got up early this morning, went to breakfast and did some errands with my mom while they worked on the floor, and then came home only to be quarantined to our 3 season porch because we couldn’t walk on the floor. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been for the fact that our wooden floor covers the entire middle section of our house, and prevented access to any food or any of the bathrooms. Needless to say, we spent the majority of the day at my Grandfather’s house. Now I’m back and able to walk on the floor, but it smells very strongly and rather unpleasantly of varnish. Oh well, even with all the commotion I’m still glad to be at home!   See you all Wednesday!

 

I’m covered!

I thought I’d share with you something that turned up in my inbox recently – the cover design for my next book. I was so excited to see it, mainly because you never know how they will turn out, and I really love a good book jacket. I don’t buy books because the cover grabs me, but I still really like ones that are visually enticing. And I really, really hate it when the same stock photo ends up on multiple covers. A crime fiction blog The Rap Sheet collects these  “copycat covers” – see this example and this one. How frustrating for the authors! And embarrassing, too. I wouldn’t want to have one of my covers end up there.

My editor asked for ideas, and I found several images that I thought spoke to the mood and the subject of the book, and my favorite was this one by a talented photographer that is very much like a scene in the book, and a moody, interesting photo besides. If you’ve ever been to Chicago, you might have seen underpasses like this one.

Apparently the designer agreed with me because this is what he (or she – I don’t know who it is) came up with:

A woman has been photoshopped in beside the car at the end of the underpass and the coloring seems slightly darker. Areas at the bottom and top had to be added to accommodate the lettering and, of course, be a different shape because books are taller than the square photo. But I like the way it turned out.

The inside of the book will have the same design as the previous one. Most people don’t give it much thought, but every book is designed inside and out. A designer chooses where the page numbers and headers go, whether there will be a dropped capital at the beginning of chapters and sections, what fonts will be used and how much space will be around the edges of the page. Some of it’s economics – font may be smaller or margins stingier to save pages – but mostly it’s an aesthetic choice.  Check it out – the novels we’re reading all have unique designs for their pages.

The funny thing is, this is not true of most e-books. If you’ve ever seen one Kindle book, you’ve seen ‘em all. So far as I’ve been able to tell every one has exactly the same fonts and design elements, which seems boring to me. I actually bought a Kindle book for my phone when I was on my way to a conference earlier this month and hadn’t yet read one of the books by a writer whose panel I was moderating and ran out of time to get to a bookstore. It’s convenient to download a book instantly and easy to carry in your pocket, but it’s not much fun to read a book on a phone. It was not only hard to read, it just didn’t look good.

Are you at all tempted by e-books? Would you want to carry a library on your phone?

 

Geez…

So I just watched the Vikings barely get a win… it was almost painful to watch the last couple of minutes. Our defense just decided they weren’t going to play the last quarter, I guess; not to mention we only won because their kicker missed. Sweet win, guys. Anyways, this weekend was pretty fun! My friend came to visit me from NDSU and it was so great to see her! It’s hard having her that far away . This week is going to be BRUTAL. I have tons of homework and about a million things that are due, plus I have a bio and chem test on the same day. That should definitely not be allowed. I am super excited for reading days so I can go home!! I’m also driving to UW Lacrosse on saturday to see my best friend. So all I have to do is survive this week! Wish me luck. See you all tomorrow!

 

Sick….Awesome

Well once again I forgot to post on friday but that was mostly thanks to being sick as a dog.  I have been sick since friday and I still feel like absolute crap.  My head feels like its 4 sizes bigger than it is, my sinuses are all congested and my cough sounds like a person with bad bronchitis.  I have been in bed for the past 24 hours except for attempting to go to captains practice which wasn’t a good idea haha.  I actually made my roommate hand me my laptop to write this haha.  Hopefully everyone can stay away from what I have and hopefully I’ll see you guys on wednesday.

 

Back from Colorado

So this is where I was on Thursday afternoon . . .

I was at a meeting of liberal arts college library directors at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and we really did have a meeting with business and agendas and all, but first we got a tour from a geologist of this awesome rock formation just outside of town. People who arrived early also got to go to the top of Pike’s Peak which sticks up right there, visible from anywhere in town. Amazing. I hope this doesn’t make our Coloradans feel too homesick.

I would never have enough courage to do this, though . . .

There were quite a few rock climbers. Apparently they are often climging up and rappelling down these steep rocks, but they have to get a permit and can’t poke new pitons into the rocks.

 

You Are What You Read?

This post at a blog about psychology and reading points out that people often “read into” what you’re reading (no pun intended, but it’s not a bad pun, come to think of it). Reporters love to list what the president is taking for vacation reading. Bill Clinton loved crime fiction; George Bush read mostly history; Barak Obama took two works of crime fiction to Martha’s Vinyard – George Pelecanos’s The Way Home and Richard Price’s Lush Life. The post goes on to talk about a bookstore that has started  a dating service by matching people who like similar books.

The bookstore dating service began when a friend of the owner spotted two books lying together behind the counter and immediately exclaimed, “‘tell me those are for the same guy, and please tell me he’s single!” When I was young, I remember being endlessly curious about the people who had taken a book out of the library before me. I would always pick the circulation card from of its snug manila pocket and peek at the previous borrowers. When was the book taken out last? What did the person’s signature look like? This is one of the things I miss about circulation cards, that fragile tie to the strangers who share our love of certain books.

There are now laws that keep what you’re reading private, and I wouldn’t have discovered my husband of thirty plus years based on reading tastes.  On the other hand, I have read the two crime fiction novels the president took on vacation and loved them both, so maybe if we weren’t both already married . . .

Of course this dating service wouldn’t work well for most college students since you’re too busy reading what you’re told to read to have much room for choice. You’d end up having to date people in your classes.

 

Musical Mystery

Being as our class is about mysteries, here’s one for you… You know how songs can get stuck in your head and never seem to leave? Well for about the past four hours I’ve been fortunate enough to be humming none other than the Star Spangled Banner. Now the big question is, where did that come from?? I’m thinking I haven’t heard that song in quite some time now. Okay, so I know that doesn’t quite count as a mystery but oh well. Maybe some more big, noisy trucks blaring some tunes will drive by my window so I can get a new song on my mind!

 

Finally the weekend

The weekend is finally here and i am very excited for it to be saturday.  I am looking forward to my next three weekends because they are promised to be great ones.  This saturday my girlfriend is coming up to see me and I couldn’t be happier.  I haven’t seen her in 4 weeks and it seems like its been forever.  Then on sunday, my mom and sister are coming to visit and see how I am doing and hopefully, I can get my mom to do some laundry for me haha.  Then next weekend I am going home for my high school’s homecoming game to see the family and some of the younger friends still at the high school.  My friends birthday is the day after the homecoming game so I HAVE  to go down to the U and celebrate haha.  Finally to the third week, Gustavus plays St. Thomas in football so i’m going down to St. Thomas and watching the game and staying with some  friends from Stillwater.  Then on saturday, haha I am going up to mankato with some friends that go to Augustana (South Dakota) because they play Mankato in THEIR homecoming game haha.  These weekends plan on being great and hopefully they follow through.