On Friday, the publisher sent me the first full mock up of my book to review. Last week I made decisions about font size, book size and spacing and then he was able to format the entire text and photos. My initial reaction was delight and then I was gripped by anxiety about the next steps, how to promote it and how my life will change. Publishing a book is an opportunity for growth, which I embrace, but it's also scary.
When we reviewed the book at Penelope this morning, they helped me see a few areas to improve. First, the text boxes are too distracting visually because the border is too wide and the print is in bold. I hadn't even noticed. Then, we examined all the photos and questioned whether each photo would help teach a key point, move the story forward or illustrate our varied activities. We also discussed whether the photo was effective in black and white. In a few cases, the answer is no. Sara pointed out that I have too many photos where a group of people were all gathered together looking directly into the camera. That has to change. As Penny said, "More doing!" Those two are treasures! Both artists, they see elements that I overlook.
Tomorrow, I'll be hard at work reexamining thousands of photos looking for a different angles, more activity and high contrast. Fortunately, Evan helped me out this evening to gain some more operating memory. We're exporting my entire iMovie library to the upstairs computer via wifi. When I delete the library from my laptop, that will free up 64 GB to work with. Then, he suggested calling Netsync about their upstreaming service and perhaps upgrade to speed up the uploading of my photo library to the cloud. Look at me! Talking about tech like I fully understand it! Almost, but not completely.
It's been very hot this week and that warmed the pool to 89 degrees! Swimming for any amount of time was tough, but I endured and have now tallied 13.39 miles. For hours each day, I've also been helping my sister with her house. She works like a demon and has transformed that 1925 house into a little treasure.
The week was marred by several horrific events. First, a madman ambushed the Republican Congressional baseball team at an early morning practice and shot one Congressman. He is in grievous condition with a bullet that hit his hip, broke his pelvis and damaged internal organs. An aide, a lobbyist and one capital police woman were also shot. Several other people were injured in the process.
Then, a US destroyer and a cargo ship collided off the coast of Japan and seven sailors were killed. It took great effort to keep the ship from sinking. There are many questions about how those two huge ships could collide in daylight.
The upcoming week promises to be a bit cooler. I'll be able to better concentrate on the book and move it along to the finish line. There are other issues and tasks I would like to tackle, but the book must come first.
The first and last poppy
The first lily! Thousands more to come very soon!
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