For the past two days I've been unable to sleep past 4:30AM. I knew this would happen as soon as WheelMan Press sent me the file of my fifth book, Exchanges, to review and approve. I am again reminded of the classic episode of the Little Rascals where Jackie Cooper is suspended from school, regrets his bad behavior, and is hounded by his conscience, which repeats the phrase: "Learn that poem; learn that poem." The only way Miss Crabtree will permit him to return to class is if he will recite the piece in front of his peers. He surrenders and suffers the humiliation, balling as he recites. These days Miss Crabtree would be fired for assigning such a task. There must be a voice in my head saying something similar. I've proofed 265 pages so far, and found 32 errors, nine of which are improper spacing, which sometimes occurs in Adobe. I've encountered it in my work with my literary angel, Victoria Valentine, in preparing my novels Adjustments and Killing. When people have asked me if writing is an obsession, I've said no. It only feels like it in the last stages of getting a book into print. I'm tempted to overlook some of the errors. In two instances a paragraph's last sentence has dropped down to create a new paragraph. I'd bet 99% of readers wouldn't notice or care. There are two instances where Char1ey is spelled with the number one rather than a small l. This is a remnant of when I scanned the original paper manuscript I'd done on a typewriter. Do I let these go so that the publisher will have less work? No, because there will probably be errors I've missed, and the less the better. I'm still waiting to hear whether any of my nieces has a full Adobe program that would allow me to make the changes myself, if the publisher okays it. Since he is financing the book, he might want total control of that aspect, which is understandable. 145 pages to go.
I had a nice surprise today when Susan, one of my best customers, showed. She spends five months a year in Thailand, where her sons live with their families. Although it was about 50 degrees, she complained about the cold. It was hot in that Asian paradise. True to form, she went for the off-beat, purchasing Emily Arsenault's In Search of the Rose Notes.Thank you, ma'am, and to my three other customers. I kept the session to two hours, anxious to get back to proof-reading.
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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