Jmmcgee's Blog

Final Stages

juliemmcgee — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:30:39 +0000

I received the e-mail from lulu telling me that my proof has shipped.

Waiting.

I have high hopes that my page layout is either right, or really close. Slightly further to one side for left pages, and flip-flop of the right pages. I’ll just have to see.

And the cover? How will the cover look?

Things are not always what they seem on a back-lit laptop screen.

After my book is in my hands…..

I have made changes already. Some very good ones, thanks to my other pair of eyes. So I can’t hit ‘approve’ right away. I’ll have to upload the revised version. Then it’s approve. Then Blood Rites can be available to sell.

This is a good thing. I’ve started work on the second.

Number 98

juliemmcgee — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:44:40 +0000

The number thing did work for the upcoming James Bond movie (Number 23) for quite some time.

So, if a book is alive when it receives its ISBN, then the breath of life has been given.

My proof is in the works. 3-5 days to print. A few more days in the post. Then I get to read it again. Not on a screen. Not on a bunch of letter-sized printed paper. But as an actual book.

Book feel, book smell, book weight.

Then there are more changes, or I click “approve” and off she goes. Not my job to write that first book anymore. Then I can, guilt-free, hunker down to work on the second.

Yay!

Upload

juliemmcgee — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:35:10 +0000

What’s the big deal?

I sat at the computer today and uploaded files. Front cover, back cover and the scariest part: the guts.

I guess this means that, technically, I could go online right now, and buy a copy of my book. That’s is. It’s there.

And, for no real or particular reason, I am sitting here completely stressed out.

Is this what it’s going to be like from here on out? That anxious, kinda sick feeling? I hope not. I suppose I could just remain a barista forever. It is safe, and not scary, and it’s predictable, and I know my drinks don’t suck. It didn’t used to be like that. At the beginning, I was anxious too. What if I messed up somebody’s drink? Some of the customers I have served are the type to have their entire day ruined by one bad cup of coffee. Glad I got over that.

I’ll just have to get over this, too.

Time for cut & paste

juliemmcgee — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:33:54 +0000

I had a few options available when it was time to consider the cover.

1. Go with one of lulu’s available ‘insta-covers’

2. Pay somebody money to design one for me

3. Design one myself.

Option 1. No. Sorry, they are really just kinda, well… *Sigh* They are just ok. If I hadn’t spent the last seven years living with Adobe CS at my fingertips, they would probably be the option I went with. But no, option 1 didn’t make the cut.

Option 2. You know, I’d really love to have the luxury of doing that. The idea of just being able to write my book and then look over some bodies sketches and picking one out like a kid in a toy store is indeed very appealing. However, this kid is broke. I’d be able to pick out, but not buy. So, sorry Option 2. I can’t afford you right now….

Option 3. Ya know, unless Option 4 chooses to present itself sometime soon, Option 3 will win by default. I’m not saying that what I have is bad. I actually like it. It’s simple. It isn’t quite what I imagined it to be. As I don’t have that little USB port in the back of my head that lets me download mind ‘screen shots’ yet, I had to cut out a lot of the fancy stuffs. Still…. It’s not half bad.

You’ll have to let me know what you think…

Back to writing

juliemmcgee — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:05:25 +0000

I know I said it was done. I tried to tell myself that it was finished. But every time I go back in, there is more I want to add. Little things that I want to change are just sitting there demanding that I fix them.

Hearing “Have you thought about….” at first hurt some feelings, but then, after realizing that the changes would be for the better, I went back with not the editing pen, but the creating pen.

I may never finish…..

Not dead….

juliemmcgee — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:05:38 +0000

It was pointed out to me that I have not blogged in many weeks.

The truth is not that I have been too busy. I just haven’t made the time. If something is important, you make the time right?

I have been, preoccupied.

The formatting is done though. No more excuses on that part. The only thing big left is the cover art. As I lay in bed this morning thinking about the big project that is my book, I started to work on the cover in my head: What picture to use, what to do with it, what to do with it some more…

The only thing left is the sitting down and photoshopping until my brains fall out. It’s been a long time since I’ve played in PS for anything real, beyond trimming pictures down to size. We’ll see how it goes….

confessions in Formatting

juliemmcgee — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:37:19 +0000

Once upon a time, when I thought was really serious about learning everything new all at once, I started to compile my book in InDesign. It was a little tricky and kinda confusing. Bit by painful little bit, it made it into one file.

Then I started English 201. Like it or not, everything I wrote was in MS Word. Formatting a silly little four page paper was easy peasy.

And then grammar check happened.

It called to me. It called like the snake telling me that I should eat from the tree of knowledge!

A few hours of control+tab, copy and paste and the book was in word.

Like Eve, I understood the error of my ways after the deed was done.

For some reason, while I was formatting for chapter pages, the nine lines down that Chapter X was inscribed on started getting further and further down the page. I couldn’t fix it! Line space was the same, font was the same, page breaks, all the same.

Needless to say, I have left word, again. I’m back in a program that lets me do what I want instead of trying to “help” me.

Will I go back to Word again?

Sure.

For school assignments that can’t possibly be screwed up by know-it-all programs. And…. that’s it.

What about grammar check, you ask? I’ll just keep reminding myself that I write how people speak, and nobody speaks like a text book.

Feedback One

juliemmcgee — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:51:48 +0000

First off: Spell check. Yes, it can be useful for bad spellers. However, (a big however) it is NOT useful for misplaced words that, according to MS, could possibly make sense. Computer translators, like google, don’t even use actual linguists to translate anymore, they use number crunching, math people. If a word can logically fit in a place, according to what it is surrounded by, then it’s an OK word to use. No green underline. So, I could type, “I placed an ass in today’s paper,” and it’s OK. Somehow, I’m not ok.

Blood Rites came back with lots of those things highlighted. And fairly enough.

Secondly: The recommendations. Some, I will take to heart and make a few adjustments. They were well placed and thought out comments.

So why do I have to have a midterm on Thursday and a paper due Friday? It’s like torture to me! Having to wait (I will, only because I know I should) until fall break is painful. Yes, fall break is monday and tuesday, but still!

Timing is everything and right now timing is off!

I’m just going to pout.

Entry: 91

juliemmcgee — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:35:36 +0000

I have decided, that for the sake of easy counting, I’ll start The Book 2 Blog at number 100. It will be more fair to book one, and I still have to go through the process with lulu, etc.

This should be fun :)

Edit 1 down

juliemmcgee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:42:04 +0000

At 6 20 this morning, I finished the first complete go-through.

As I sat there looking at the final two words “The End”, the whole thing felt anticlimactic.

I have been working on the book for so long!

It’s gone off to other eyes pair one and two, soon to follow three and four.

I’d still like to give it another once over to make sure all of my “s and ”s are going the right direction, blah blah. Then, if it looks good to go, it will be uploaded to lulu.

It’s just after lunch now and I think I’m over the shock of the whole thing. I don’t know what I was expecting. Towards the end, I would look at the page count and think “almost there!”. Closer and closer and closer! Then it was the end. It was still dark out. The kids were still sleeping. It was the end and nothing happened. Time to get ready for the day, that’s what there was to do.

So now what? :) Now I start on the second one.