Higher and Higher



I know prices have been shooting up in recent months, but I've managed to face it pretty calmly. However, I just sent a copyedited manuscript back to my editor via Fedex, and the cost of this absolutely stunned me. Nearly $26 for a second-day delivery! This makes me wish I'd finished the doggone thing yesterday and could have sent it three-day Express Saver. After all, I had it ready for shipment in less than an hour this morning. But there are few things in life more exhausting than going over a copyedited manuscript, and after working on it from 9AM to 4:30PM yesterday I was exhausted. Since I saved the trickiest copyeditor observations for last, I felt I needed a clear head, so I decided to pack it in for the day. Now that I'm done and it was relatively simple instead of the daunting task it seemed like yesterday, I'm confident I did the right thing.

Most of us have said at one time or another things like, "I remember when that $2 toll was a quarter," or "I remember when gas was 35 cents a gallon." Well, I remember when a full manuscript could be sent second-day Fedex for about ten bucks . . . and it wasn't all that long ago.

I guess I can be grateful that that this is the age of email for manuscript submission (depending on your editor, I suppose), even if copyedits and galleys have to be made on hard copy.

Fedex delivered my covers while I was addressing all those copyeditor comments, and I feel they did a fabulous job on this one. I do plan to put it on my next newsletter before I post it here, which will be in early December, so stay tuned!

Mama Africa is Gone

South African singer Miriam Makeba passed away after a performance in Italy, of an apparent heart attack. (Since she was performing in support of a journalist under death threats for writing a book about organized crime, I have to wonder if she could have been poisoned, but I guess that's neither here nor there.)

Ms. Makeba's talent was recognized early, and she performed before Queen Elizabeth II. Her outspoken criticism of the South African apartheid system resulted in her being barred from re-entering South Africa after an international concert tour in 1959. With true heartlessness, the government did not allow Ms. Makeba entry to attend her mother's funeral the following year. It was not until after the end of apartheid in 1990 - over 30 years later - that she was allowed to return to her homeland.

Two of her husbands were American activist Stokely Carmichael and fellow South African and fellow exiled citizen Hugh Masekela.

Miriam Makeba is best known to American audiences for her 1967 hit song, Pata Pata. I remember running to get that record as a 10-year-old and playing it over and over. Even now I have it on CD. I dare you to listen to this song and keep still. It's impossible.

Rest in peace, Mama Africa.

Buried

I'm busy doing the copyediting thing for A New Kind of Bliss, and although from what I see these look a lot less detailed than the ones for my last book, Once Upon A Project, this is something that takes time to get done. It's my last chance to do re-writes; they frown on these at the galley stage.

Have a wonderful weekend! Here in Wisconsin they're predicting a dusting of snow on grassy areas. Hard to believe, since the early part of othis week it hit 71 degrees, but as we all know, in life situations change very quickly.

I'm proud to say I've been interviewed by the Cozy Corner of Elegance Book Club, who will be reading Once Upon A Project at their January meeting, on their new web site, so check it out here! I must have typed my answers in a real hurry, I said hand when I meant to say head.

Yes, We Did

That's all.

As we prepare for Election Day . . . .

. . . someone passed this on to me, and I thought it had real merit. You might have seen this before, but my, what a difference in perceptions.

Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis probably knows that color does matter. This is for the ones who don't agree.

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"What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, following the debate, including a three month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama were divorced? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference. And, think of this - the candidates' educational backgrounds:

Barack Obama: Columbia University - B. A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J. D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joe Biden: University of Delaware - B. A. in History and B. A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J. D.)

John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester; North Idaho College - 2 semesters , general study; University of Idaho - 2 semesters, journalism; Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester; University of Idaho - 3 semesters, B. A. in Journalism.

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land, as well as our standing in the world.

You make the call."

Please vote tomorrow if you haven't already, no matter who you support.

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

I woke up a half hour ago positive that the time had changed, but only my bedside clock said 5:30. The cable boxes and that little clock on the CNN screen all showed 6:30.

Yet when I check the Internet I see a plethora of articles stating that Fall Back date 2008 is November 2nd.

Am I in the twilight zone or something????

I'll have to call the airline to make sure I get my mother to the airport on a timely basis. I don't want her to have to wait an extra hour.

Do You NaNoWriMo?

Despite having a full day yesterday that started before 5AM, I felt an urge to stay up and write last night, not calling it a night until 11PM.

Part of this is probably due to the fact that I barely wrote 50 words during October, and I'm just hungry to get started. Changing jobs, having my mother visiting (she flies home tomorrow morning), and having over 25 houseguests for a long weekend just doesn't leave a lot of spare time. But now that the eerie glow of Halloween has worn off, I realize that today is November 1st. November 1st, as in NaNoWriMo.

I'm not participating in the annual writing marathon this year (I believe their web site is nanowrimo.org). It's too big of a stretch to go from not writing at all to trying to crank out 50K words in 30 days. Besides, my plans do not include actually writing a novel from scratch. I've got to revise one proposal and create a second, ideally before the end of the month, so I can turn my attentions to my next contracted work come December. And I will likely be receiving copyedits for next spring's release in the middle of all this.

I'll report my success (or lack of) 30 days from now.

What about you? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Why, or why not?

Off to write. And I get an extra hour this weekend to do it!!