Deadline: An Assortment of Random Thoughts

Last night about 11:15PM, I emailed a 217 page, 67,303 word file to the publishing house. I finished the book - or, I finished it as much as I can tell it's finished. I've never done this kind of writing before or in this way.

In my email to the production associate, I specifically asked her to email me to let me know she received the file okay. I heard nothing all morning. A few minutes ago, I emailed again. "Did you get the file?" Finally a response:

"Oh, yeah, got it. Will be in touch soon."

And that was it.

It feels like such a let down. I worked my butt off on a very tight deadline, and all I hear is, "Will be in touch soon."

Have I mentioned this production associate is young? As in I've been in the work force longer than this girl young woman girl has been alive. Okay, that was petty. She's just really young. I've been writing technical documentation since she was still in diapers, creating whole books on my own.

I thought several times over the summer, no wonder print media isn't doing well. Communication - for a company that's supposed to be all about communicating - has been poor to say the least. They really could stand to step into the 21st century and communicate in a complete and timely manner. I'm not saying they should be carrying crackberries and responding to email 24/7 (not healthy for anyone), just within a couple business days would be good (instead of the ten plus days I experienced this summer and which led me to believe several times the deal was dead or dying - and led to the very tight writing schedule).

I am likely to see bits of the book again in the next few weeks. They tell me there's an editing process, but are a bit cagey about it. I think the experience I do have scares them. Production is supposed to start November 2nd. They actually will still produce blues to proof.

Anyway, for now, I am looking forward to the following:

• Cleaning my house. Seriously. It's been a tad neglected recently.
• Reading foufy magazines. And some non-foufy magazines. There's a small pile of magazines to which I subscribe still encased in plastic by my bed.
• Finally putting together our vacation photo album.
• Baking.
• Cleaning out the boys' room. It's time for it to make a transition to bigger kid room.
• Thinking about Halloween costumes.
• Planning M's birthday. Any ideas of what to give a 10 year old? I can't remember what we gave C.
  
• Knitting! I bought some alpaca yarn the other day just for this purpose!
• Printing! My beautiful basement worktable has been neglected. And the holidays are coming. I'm hoping to print a good number of gifts this year.
• Watching some mindless television. I'd been hoping to spend a little time with my baseball boyfriend, but, alas, that is not to be. (CHOKE! Seems like old times, boys.) Going to have to wait for spring training, I guess.

I also have to deal with (but am not looking forward to dealing with) more school start time stuff. Yes, the insanity is STILL going on. These women (about ten of them and one man) still insist they their precious darlings are going to be harmed by getting up early. I recently came up with a list of over 1000 early start elementary schools across the country, many high performing, and they still deny the possibility - no, the reality! - that it IS working here. Just amazing.

(One of the current school committee members has asked me to run for school committee in the spring. That is SO not going to happen.)

Meanwhile the kids and their lives have just plugged along. There's a scout den meeting tonight, soccer all weekend, C is planning on learning the trumpet in addition to French horn, S loves Kindergarten, and on and on and on.

I have a lot of catching up to do.