July 14, 2007: Back Pain! Rejections! Editing Projects Gone Astray! Woe is me!
(But I really can make it rain.)
Writing -- Got a quick rejection (one-week turnaround) from Jim Baen's Universe. On the first couple of e-mails the assistant editors sent each other about my story, they hit the "reply all" button, so I learned they felt my story was either "boring" or "too dark." They were discussing three stories, so I'm not sure which category mine fell into. My story is a bit dark -- it involves a disabled baby who dies and a lot of other innocent people who die -- so for the sake of my self-esteem I'm going to assume it's not boring. I sent it back out again right away [vigorously patting self on back].
Also got a very courteously worded rejection from the Machine of Death anthology. They got about 700 submissions! Good grief. Of course an author improves her chances of acceptance by writing a high-quality story, but still . . . the sheer numbers are discouraging. However, they also take the sting out of the rejection. I just keep telling myself, "Write and submit. Write and submit. It's the process that matters, not the outcome. I control the process; I do not control the outcome."
Have opened up another story I wrote at Clarion that just needs a few tweaks and another page or two to flesh out the ending before being ready to go out into the world. "Lunge endings": I do them in just about every first draft. I get so excited about finishing a story, I lunge for the ending. "So a 16-ton weight dropped on the dragon's head, and the princesses lived happily ever after. The End." We need to know where the 16-ton weight came from and a little more about what "happily ever after" means to these characters. :-)
Editing-wise, knocked off another book on educational practice in good order. I'm enjoying these books on teaching and school leadership, particularly the cogent criticisms from different perspectives of No Child Left Behind. This book was my first project for my newest client. As usual with a publisher I haven't worked with before, I had to ask some "obvious" questions, and I still misunderstood what I was supposed to do! However, the project editor was very nice, and at least I turned it around quickly and (my opinion) did good work.
For another house I work for, I was expecting a proofreading assignment to show up on my doorstep by the end of this week (and it hasn't), I got a copyediting assignment via e-mail (but I only got a couple hundred graphics files I can't read with any of my software and no book manuscript that I can discern, and I didn't notice the problem until the project editor had, very reasonably, left for the weekend), and I'm expecting a copyediting project early this week (hopefully nothing will go amiss with that).
I also have a manuscript for another publisher that's with the authors for review, and that should be coming back to me this week.
So I've got lots of work. Just none of it's on my desk right now, which makes me itchy. However, that's probably just as well, since on Monday, I woke up to agonizing lower back spasms. I ice, stretch, change positions, take OTC painkillers (which do nothing), apply BenGay (which isn't supposed to work, according to the "experts," but relieves pain better than anything else I've tried), and spend a lot of time resting/sleeping on my side with a pillow between my legs. I've also had a couple of chiropractic treatments. Five days and counting, and still can barely sit, stand, bend, or lie down. That leaves . . . ?
Family -- Lost a couple of Glowlight Tetras to the last heat wave (which was miserable -- 88F heat index as the low one night). One just disappeared; presumably its corpse was eaten by something. The other was clearly not doing well -- a combo of "velvet" (a parasite) and a bacterial infection, I think -- but I didn't jump on it in time. I was pretty enervated by the heat myself, and then by the lower back sprain/strain.
In other aquarium news, my floating Water Sprite, which started in February as a few leaves, overran both tanks. I took in a bunch to my favorite fish store for credit (like trading in used books to a bookstore for credit). I'd never brought in anything to a fish store before, but the clerk was very patient, explaining how much was "a bunch" and that damp newspaper or paper towel was better for transport than bags full of water. She even gave me a bag of various baby plants -- she'd just cleaned the plant tank -- to take home. I also left with a new Colombian Ramshorn Snail to be a partner for my old one (though I have no idea how to sex them). I still have two huge Water Sprite plants in my 55-gallon tank, with bitty babies hanging all over them, and the 20-gallon is full, so I'll probably bring in more next week.
Bootsie enjoys being an athletic kitty at night. When the weather is cool, we open the double-hung windows, and sitting on the lower sill just isn't good enough for Empress Bootsie. She must be on the top sill, no matter how much silly effort it takes!
Culture -- No reading with my back the way it is. Do TV reruns count as culture?
Home and Garden -- Pfft! Can't pick anything from my wonderful garden with my back out. Thank goodness, just before my back went out, I'd thoroughly soaked everything with the hose, resulting in about an inch of rain. (I can make it rain!) Since then, it's cooled off, and we've gotten a trace of rain and may get more. The Twin Cities are still running a 5"-7" rain deficit, though, and it's a pain. I certainly can't water anything with my back the way it is! I also want to clean up the place before Doug's parents arrive for their annual visit, but I don't know how much I'll be able to help with that.
Fun --
Writing -- Got a quick rejection (one-week turnaround) from Jim Baen's Universe. On the first couple of e-mails the assistant editors sent each other about my story, they hit the "reply all" button, so I learned they felt my story was either "boring" or "too dark." They were discussing three stories, so I'm not sure which category mine fell into. My story is a bit dark -- it involves a disabled baby who dies and a lot of other innocent people who die -- so for the sake of my self-esteem I'm going to assume it's not boring. I sent it back out again right away [vigorously patting self on back].
Also got a very courteously worded rejection from the Machine of Death anthology. They got about 700 submissions! Good grief. Of course an author improves her chances of acceptance by writing a high-quality story, but still . . . the sheer numbers are discouraging. However, they also take the sting out of the rejection. I just keep telling myself, "Write and submit. Write and submit. It's the process that matters, not the outcome. I control the process; I do not control the outcome."
Have opened up another story I wrote at Clarion that just needs a few tweaks and another page or two to flesh out the ending before being ready to go out into the world. "Lunge endings": I do them in just about every first draft. I get so excited about finishing a story, I lunge for the ending. "So a 16-ton weight dropped on the dragon's head, and the princesses lived happily ever after. The End." We need to know where the 16-ton weight came from and a little more about what "happily ever after" means to these characters. :-)
Editing-wise, knocked off another book on educational practice in good order. I'm enjoying these books on teaching and school leadership, particularly the cogent criticisms from different perspectives of No Child Left Behind. This book was my first project for my newest client. As usual with a publisher I haven't worked with before, I had to ask some "obvious" questions, and I still misunderstood what I was supposed to do! However, the project editor was very nice, and at least I turned it around quickly and (my opinion) did good work.
For another house I work for, I was expecting a proofreading assignment to show up on my doorstep by the end of this week (and it hasn't), I got a copyediting assignment via e-mail (but I only got a couple hundred graphics files I can't read with any of my software and no book manuscript that I can discern, and I didn't notice the problem until the project editor had, very reasonably, left for the weekend), and I'm expecting a copyediting project early this week (hopefully nothing will go amiss with that).
I also have a manuscript for another publisher that's with the authors for review, and that should be coming back to me this week.
So I've got lots of work. Just none of it's on my desk right now, which makes me itchy. However, that's probably just as well, since on Monday, I woke up to agonizing lower back spasms. I ice, stretch, change positions, take OTC painkillers (which do nothing), apply BenGay (which isn't supposed to work, according to the "experts," but relieves pain better than anything else I've tried), and spend a lot of time resting/sleeping on my side with a pillow between my legs. I've also had a couple of chiropractic treatments. Five days and counting, and still can barely sit, stand, bend, or lie down. That leaves . . . ?
Family -- Lost a couple of Glowlight Tetras to the last heat wave (which was miserable -- 88F heat index as the low one night). One just disappeared; presumably its corpse was eaten by something. The other was clearly not doing well -- a combo of "velvet" (a parasite) and a bacterial infection, I think -- but I didn't jump on it in time. I was pretty enervated by the heat myself, and then by the lower back sprain/strain.
In other aquarium news, my floating Water Sprite, which started in February as a few leaves, overran both tanks. I took in a bunch to my favorite fish store for credit (like trading in used books to a bookstore for credit). I'd never brought in anything to a fish store before, but the clerk was very patient, explaining how much was "a bunch" and that damp newspaper or paper towel was better for transport than bags full of water. She even gave me a bag of various baby plants -- she'd just cleaned the plant tank -- to take home. I also left with a new Colombian Ramshorn Snail to be a partner for my old one (though I have no idea how to sex them). I still have two huge Water Sprite plants in my 55-gallon tank, with bitty babies hanging all over them, and the 20-gallon is full, so I'll probably bring in more next week.
Bootsie enjoys being an athletic kitty at night. When the weather is cool, we open the double-hung windows, and sitting on the lower sill just isn't good enough for Empress Bootsie. She must be on the top sill, no matter how much silly effort it takes!
Culture -- No reading with my back the way it is. Do TV reruns count as culture?
Home and Garden -- Pfft! Can't pick anything from my wonderful garden with my back out. Thank goodness, just before my back went out, I'd thoroughly soaked everything with the hose, resulting in about an inch of rain. (I can make it rain!) Since then, it's cooled off, and we've gotten a trace of rain and may get more. The Twin Cities are still running a 5"-7" rain deficit, though, and it's a pain. I certainly can't water anything with my back the way it is! I also want to clean up the place before Doug's parents arrive for their annual visit, but I don't know how much I'll be able to help with that.
Fun --
- Merriam-Webster's is adding about a hundred new words and phrases to its dictionary. I guess I'm surprised that words like smackdown and Bollywood aren't already in the dictionary. For writers who want to write character dialog on the cutting edge, here's the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a communally maintained online dictionary of "fringe English, focusing on slang, jargon, and new words."
- Check out the Dependable Erection blog (named after a North Carolina fencing company's slogan). I found it after a Google search on some lyrics from a TV beer ad I couldn't quite understand. This guy had the lyrics up, confirming my hunch that the ad was incredibly stupid. He also had up an analysis of how stupid the ad was, and I read a bunch of his other entries about national politics and media and enjoyed them muchly.
posted by Paula F. at
7:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home