The Paper Edit
So I finally had the book printed out. It weighs in at 184 pages but I imagine that might shrink a bit. It’s amazing how many errors you can miss when editing on a computer screen, mostly periods vs. commas so far, but nearly every poem has a little oops that needed fixing!
Anyone who knows me can attest that I’m nowhere near being a Luddite when it comes to computers, but I have to confess to a serious feeling of well-being when holding my book (even though it’s just a mark-up copy) in my hands. There is a committment to a book that just isn’t there in an e-book. Someone said “Yes, this is worth the time, effort, energy, and resources that go into printing a book.” It also says “Yes, I’m satisfied that it is finished.” That’s the hard part. I know it will never truly be finished – I only hope I can abandon it in an interesting place.
This morning I’m doing a TV interview and I’ll be reading a poem from the book – I’m still not sure which one it will be – and the reality of saying “Here is the mock-up of my book, I hope to have it in print by…..(place date here)…” is both exhilarating and frightening!
Wish me luck… but if experience is any indication I know my hair will be doing something weird and although th camera may add ten pounds it also, in my case, seems to remove an undisclosed number of IQ points as well! 🙂
Here goes…
Linda Studley 
You were GREAT Linda!! I’m just editing it together now, and I’m so glad we had a chance to sit down again!
You are such an easy person to talk to!
Only just seen your post, so I guess by now the interview will already have happened. Hope it all went ok! Take consolation from the fact that, even if you do tend to lose a few IQ points during interviews, you still have more of them remaining than most of us even start with!
Lol! Thanks Tony! The interview went well and the book is almost finished being edited. And now it seems I am drifting towards the writing again… Hope you enjoy some of the new stuff.
The best of everything and congratulations…
Thank you Mary
You’ll be amazing! Congratulations : )
Thanks Shannon – so good to have you coming to the writing group again and now that we’ve finished moving, maybe I can actually start attending again!
Thanks for the update. You are not abandoning it at a interesting place. You are trusting yourself that your book has legs and can walk on its own. Think of all the places it will lead you now.
🙂 Thank you my friend!