Monday, February 19, 2024
Going Backwards
Monday, February 05, 2024
Monday Monday
Monday, August 21, 2023
Happiness Challenge - Day 21
Today I finished up an editing project. It was a lot of work, and I was pleased with the job I did. The manuscript was interesting and that always helps.
It has been a while since I edited a full manuscript for someone. This would be the 12th book I have edited. I have learned a lot since I started editing manuscripts and I think I do a much better job now than I did when I first started. For one thing, I learned that the manuscript needs to be as perfect as I can make it in all ways. Publishing houses do not check for discrepancies or fix things anymore. The first book I edited had mistakes in it because the author told me not to fix them - he said the publishing house would correct things and he didn't want to pay me to do it (mostly the problem was different spellings of the name of the same person). However, after the book published and I received a copy, I saw that the publishing house didn't correct hardly anything, if anything at all. So now even if I'm not being paid to fix something, I do it anyway.
To ensure I catch everything, I read most of the book aloud as I go through. Generally, I read through a chapter, make changes (using the track changes feature in MS Word), then go back through the chapter again using the "final" view and read that chapter aloud to ensure I didn't miss anything. Then after I have finished, I review the whole book for consistencies in headings, chapter headings, numbers, etc., and pick out chapters or paragraphs to review to make sure things are flowing properly.
I use Chicago Style but most authors also have their own preferences, so I keep a notepad of those to refer to as I go along. I also list names here, characteristics if relevant (you wouldn't want Barbara to show up with green eyes in chapter 10 when they were blue in chapter 2), and things like that.
This project made me happy because it is something I do well and it was enjoyable work, if a bit stressful because of a deadline. I actually like to work when I enjoy what I'm doing.
Friday, June 02, 2023
An Outing
Monday, May 22, 2023
Why News Media Should Unite for the Greater Good
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
The Craven, the Crazies, and the Rest of Us
Over the weekend, an Oklahoma newspaper with no online presence printed this as its front page of its weekend edition:
You can hear Rachel Maddow discuss this at this link, if you want.
I have written local journalism for 39 years. My first article was published in 1984. I've written for nearly all of the local publications, including many that no longer exist, and for statewide magazines. I estimated once that I've published over 2 million words in multiple publications.
My editor at The Fincastle Herald always told me if I didn't have someone angry at me, I wasn't doing my job.
Suffice to say, I did my job. Over the years, I have been threatened by various and sundry people, including a sheriff in nearby county. He stopped me as I was entering the courtroom to listen to a board meeting. "How do I know that's water you have in there?" he demanded, nodding toward my ever-present water bottle.
I took a drink and held it out to him. "You're welcome to the rest of it. It's just water."
"I could haul you in right now for having liquor and who'd know different?" he said. He banged his hand against his pistol on his thigh for emphasis.
"Everybody knows I don't drink alcohol," I replied, and I walked past him to my seat. I could feel him glaring at the back of my head.
Later that same night, I nearly wrecked my car on the way home as I drove over Caldwell Mountain and the tire went flat. In the shine of a flashlight, I discovered my tire had been slashed with a knife.
Yes, someone in the next county over had tried to kill me. Caldwell Mountain is a dangerous drive, over twisting, winding roads. My car could have gone off the pavement and down the mountainside, not to be found for possibly years.
That happened about 25 years ago. So, while this is nothing new, the rhetoric now has been taken to a whole other level.
It was not unusual for me to receive phone calls from people complaining about stories I wrote. "I didn't say that" was the usual complaint. I carried a tape recorder and I'd play it back to them, if I had to.
They backed down then.
Sometimes, though, the complaint was not that I wrote what they said, but that I didn't write what they said.
Sometimes people simply sound so stupid to me that I paraphrase or leave it out completely if it's not relevant to the main part of the article. It is my job to tell a story that is truthful, but that doesn't mean I have to use ignorant, racist, homophobic, fascist, or antisemitic language. Paraphrasing is allowed.
But some people want their words - no matter how ignorant they sound - in print. They want their opinions, word for word, stated. That's how sure they are that they're right. That's how sure they are that their closed-minded world view is the one that should rule the day.
So it was that last week I found myself listening to someone rant about how I hadn't printed exactly what this person had said at a supervisors meeting.
The person threatened me. I hung up on this person, and I called the police and reported the phone call. I also blocked the number.
Twenty years ago, I would not have done that. I'd have ignored the call. But these are different times, and people feel mean and emboldened, and being a bully is now in fashion.
I was taken aback by the phone call because it was literally over nothing, as far as I was concerned.
These are the times we live in. People feel emboldened in their fascism and narrow-minded thoughts. They have no room in their brains for open-minded thinking. My way or the highway, as my parents used to tell me.
However, we are all adults, not children in need of being sent to our rooms. And if someone can't have an adult conversation with me that doesn't involve threats, screaming, or insults, then that is not someone I care to talk with.
And as for the report above, it just shows how low people can be. To call these people snakes would be an injustice to snakes. The people in the article/photo above are lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut. They're so low, there is no bottom for them.
I hope they all lose their jobs.
Wednesday, December 07, 2022
Every Time We Go Away
I found this amusing, but also sad. Subscriptions to newspapers are dying - we're dinosaurs, my husband and me, who subscribe still to the print editions.
But without the journalists watching the town, ensuring the local government doesn't slide its way into fascism or some other unwanted form of governing, who will keep the officials on their toes? Citizen journalists with blogs?
The local officials aren't scared of citizen journalists with blogs. They aren't scared by online newspapers, either. Online copy is ephemeral. It can be easily changed, removed, deleted. It's easy to say it didn't happen, even if the online article states it did.
Print, though - that's permanent. When the print articles say something happened, it happened.
I am part of the local news media, even though I do not write as much as I did. My medium now is an online one, where I write government stories. The print paper that I used to write for still exists but does little in the way of real journalism. There are no hard-hitting news stories there, no small bomb-drops of information that make the public take note.
The online paper is free; the print paper is also online but behind a paywall. I don't know how many digital subscribers it has. The online paper I write for says it sometimes gets 20,000 hits on an article. Other times, not so much.
My work in the online paper sometimes aggravates the local officials because I pull no punches. I don't sugar coat, but neither do I offer opinion. I simply state what happened at a meeting. If someone says something outlandish that I think the public needs to know about, I report it. If the local officials are doing things that I think the public needs to know about, I report it. I don't exaggerate or minimize; I leave it to the reader to decide if this issue is important or not.
Most of my long-time readers know if I report on something, I think it is important and something they should know about.
I am the one who watches the local officials for Freedom of Information Act violations; the one who questions the number of closed sessions they take, the information that comes out of those sessions, and any number of other things. Even when I was writing for the print paper, many times I questioned but the public never knew I was making inquiries, protecting their interests to the best of my ability.
As best I can tell, the less drama for the print paper, the better.
My inquiries with government officials are taken seriously, in part because I've been doing it for so long, but not as seriously as they once were (or so it seems).
Without a good newspaper, a community suffers from lack of information. As the comic strip notes, where do the people who fuss about things on social media sites actually get their information? From local news reporters, whether that's print or TV media.
Or an online community journalist.
Subscribe to a paper, even if it's digital. It supports democracy, and we all know that needs all the help it can get.
*Edited
Monday, August 01, 2022
Seeing A Stroke
- Slurred speech and difficulty in understanding others
- Vision problems
- Weakness, numbness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Loss of balance
- Dizziness
- Sudden and severe headache
Friday, May 06, 2022
Musings on Three Pines
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Book Writing Question
Monday, January 31, 2022
Help Wanted
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Thursday Thirteen #725
Friday, July 09, 2021
Artemis
Monday, February 22, 2021
Bent on Destruction
This box contains my journals. I kept journals from 1985 until about 2003. Then I stopped. I occasionally write something to get it off my chest, but I no longer write daily. It's a good thing, or I would have more to shred.
Yes, I am shredding these. I'm trying to clear out things so that when I pass away, there won't be so much to deal with. Ridding myself and my heirs of these journals was high on my to-do list, and this week, they are being destroyed.
I have noted that I certainly learned to write whilst writing these journals. A lot of them are from creative writing courses - nothing salvageable in them, but I certainly did a lot of writing. (The entire lot of journals, if I sat them side by side, would be about as much as a set of old-fashioned printed encyclopedias.)
Good riddance.
****
What do you need today? What is one way you can give yourself some extra care today?
I need to stop thinking. My brain is on fast forward and I'm having a difficult time turning it off today. I could go read a book. That would give me something else to think about.
Who is someone you admire? Why?
I admire my mother-in-law. She has accepted the pandemic with aplomb, although I know she's much more of a people-person than I am and staying in has been difficult for her. She did a decent job of raising her son - he knows how to fold his t-shirts, for one thing (he actually folds them better than I do). She has aged gracefully and well.
How do you want to feel today? Do you feel that way? What can you do that would help you feel that way?
This seems a lot like the first question in these journal prompts. I would like to feel well. I do not feel well. I am still having stomach issues and have doctors' appointments over the next weeks. Hopefully we can get things settled down.
February Journal Prompts. Join up at Kwizgiver's.
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
Flu Shot Day
Today was flu shot day. It was also "husband is home and doesn't know what to do with himself day," which means I was a little out of sorts myself.
Tomorrow, hopefully, we will be both be back on our schedules.
I found out early this morning that my name is going to be in a book called Xena: Their Courage Changed the World, which is about the Xena fandom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. I am mentioned because of my involvement in WHOOSH.org, a website devoted to all things Xena: Warrior Princess. I wrote many show synopses for the show, a few articles for the website, and also did some editing for the website owner.
That was exciting news.
I meant to blog earlier but things were simply out of my hands today.
So here's a new song by Sheryl Crow that I really like.
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
I Miss School
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
A Writer's Routine
It's not quite like that . . . but then again . . . maybe.
Swiped this from Writer Nation: Marketing Advice & Tips for Writers on Facebook.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
The Artemis Journal Launch
Friday night they had this launch, and several poets read their poems. They were accompanied by classical music and by ballet dancers interpreting their words.
It was rather beautiful, actually.
Here we are for our big night on the town. |
This was an interpretation of a poem about baking bread. |
This was an interpretation of a found poem, a memorial to the poet, who passed away. |
The poet readers with their dancers. |
I can't remember what this dancer was interpreting. |
Unfortunately, I did not get names. I was there to enjoy, not report. |
My iPhone does not serve the functions I need it for at various events. I've discovered while trying to use it at supervisors' meetings, at my niece's dance recital, and now at this event, that it simply does not replace a decent camera. I have older cameras that would have taken better photos than these. I think the iPhone camera actually tries to do too much - and you end up with less. It is okay if that is all I have on me, as I did this night, but honestly I am not impressed with the photos. I was when I first purchased the phone, but after a few software upgrades, in my opinion Apple has made the process of taking a decent photo worse.
The event was very well attended, especially for a Friday night with downpouring rain. I saw several people I know and who I hadn't seen for a long time. I used to attend these kinds of events more regularly but I haven't been to readings for many years. Hollins offers all sorts of cultural activities free to the public but because of my health I haven't been for some time. The campus is difficult to reach and while it is doable, I have to really want to go to something to get there.
Downtown Roanoke is also not my favorite place to go. I think this was the first time I'd been downtown in several years. I was surprised at how busy it was as I can remember when downtown was a ghost town after hours, for the most part. The place is full of bars and eateries now; not my scene, really. I'd rather be home with a book.
I think, though, I probably need to try to attend more of the readings at Hollins again. That's a nice goal, to feel well enough to do that. I enjoyed this event and I am glad we went.
And I really appreciate the fact that my husband went with me.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Poem in Artemis
Artemis has been around for 42 years, although it took a hiatus in 2000 before resuming publication again in 2013. I worked as a copy editor on the magazine one year, a very long time ago - like 1989 or thereabouts. But I never submitted to the journal before.
I entered three poems and they chose the one I did not expect them to choose. The poem, Daughter by the Tomb, is a quiet villanelle, a form poem. While it is a good poem it was not the one I considered the best of my entries, but in reviewing the magazine I see that this poem fits in better with the other items in the magazine.
Artemis uses art to add to its attractiveness. This year the cover was by Sally Mann. The work of famous poets such as Nikki Giovanni is intertwined with unknown poets, such as myself. The mix of art and poetry makes this a unique magazine with great appeal.
The theme for this year was Women Hold Up Half the Sky.
The magazine can be purchased at http://www.artemisjournal.org/store/. It is $20 for a soft cover edition or $30 for a hard bound version.
My poem is on page 72, eloquently set off by the art of Judith Starchild.
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The Rowling Effect
Unfortunately, these generally ruin the book. The book likely should end before this jump occurs.
I call it the "Rowling effect" because that is what J. K. Rowling did in the last Harry Potter book of the series. Fans will recall that she ends the book and then has a final chapter that explains how Harry and friends grew up, married, had children, etc.
Blah. It was an excruciating chapter that should have been left out of the story.
The last book I read that did this was When the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. It wasn't a bad book - until the very end.
Then it jumped ahead about 35 years to the death of the protagonist and a relatively unbelievable revelation that the reader had figured out long before.
I see this more now than I used to, and I think Rowling's the reason. She made it okay to ruin a book's ending. She made it fine for an author not to figure out where the story really should be completed.
But it is not fine. A good ending can make a bad book better, but a bad ending can not help anything. At best, it makes a great book a little less great.
The ending should do no more than wrap up a few loose ends and show the ending of that portion of the protagonist's journey. If the rest of the protagonist's life is one big bore, we don't need to know that.
Wrapping up a book - or a TV series - with a bad ending is like putting a match to a stick. It was a good stick until you lit the match. Now you have a good stick that is burned and not so good anymore.
I could argue that Game of Thrones fits this scenario, too, with it's not-so-great final episode, but it did wrap up loose ends, and it ended the journey of its protagonists. In that show, it was the Stark children who ultimately were the protagonists, but in a show with so many characters it was never clear who the protagonist was. As people died off one by one and the story continued, one had to determine that the protagonist was someone left alive, or else conventional story techniques had been waylaid and perhaps the land itself was the protagonist, in which case anything goes, I suppose. In the end, though, we are left with several protagonists, all beginning new quests. Jon goes to live with the Free Folk, Sansa becomes Queen of the North, Bran the Broken is King of the Six Realms, and Arya sails off to the edge of the map. Their journey's aren't over. So this was, by my standards, a good ending because I didn't see the protagonists years later, dying or old or whatever their ultimate destinies may be. I can still think about them, maybe consider a day when the siblings are reunited - or not.
Big Bang Theory is a TV series that ended well. It wrapped up most loose ends - but not quite all - but still gave the viewer a reason to wonder about the characters. When you have something else to think about - will Raj ever marry, for example - then you have a good ending. These folks will go on with their lives, eating pizza on specific nights and doing their jobs. They may end up destitute or homeless or they may go on to do very great things (which most them already had done anyway). This part of their journey was done, though. The audience didn't need to know more.
Maybe what I'm trying to say is that when a book ends, there shouldn't be an absolute end. If the protagonist dies at the end, there's nothing left to think about. The journey is over. I'm not sure books should end in that fashion. I like to think of more journey's ahead, more adventures, more growth of character.
Endings can mess up a book, but that's because the book isn't about the ending. The book is about the story. It's about the getting to the end, much like life is about its journey, not the final breath. If the ending messes up the story, then it's not the right place to end.
And that's the end of all I have to say about that. For now.