Living off the Wall
07 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: book, Bound, Brian Jacques, children, donna jo napoli, editor, freelance, letter, proofreading, publishers, Redwall, young adult
After successfully finishing my first week at my new job, I just want to rest…and get back to work. I’m still on the prowl for ways to make my dream of becoming an editor a reality. Lately I’ve been putting together a letter of interest to publishers for freelance proofreading work. The letter is complete, but I’m having a difficult time finding names and titles for people to send it to at various imprints. So far I’ve found information for only one publisher. I’m going to send my letter out next week. In the meantime I’ll continue to keep my promise of reading more children’s and young adult books. During the New Years holiday I had the pleasure of reading Bound by Donna Jo Napoli. And at work I’m reading one of my two favorite novels, Redwall (Brian Jacques), during downtime. This weekend I plan to pick up a new book at my local library. This is one future editor who is going to be well immersed in her chosen market.
A Year Not Forgotten
31 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: app, awesome note, descendants, diary, family, generations, google documents, great grandmother, ipod touch, journal, new years, record, writing
As the year draws to a close, I’m reminded of an ambitious project I undertook last year around the same time. The idea was to keep a daily log of my life everyday for a year. I guess you can call it a journal or diary but I didn’t see it that way. My goal wasn’t to document my thoughts or feelings or ambitions, but rather every thing I did on that particular day, right down to showering and what I had for breakfast. And I wanted to leave it as a record to my family, so that someday when I’m gone from this world, my descendants could see what life was like for one of their own in the 28th year of her life.
It was my great-grandmother who gave me the idea. She died in 2003, but one day I found myself wondering what her life was like at my age. It was then that I came up with the idea of recording my life for a year, so that if I were someday blessed to have children and grandchildren, they would have the ability to look one year into my life via the journal I leave behind. I began my journal January 1, 2010 and ended it exactly New Years Eve night on December 31, 2010.
I used my iPod Touch and an excellent note app called Awesome Note to keep my logs. The iPod Touch made it easy for me to write my log whenever and wherever I wanted. I usually wrote my account at the end of the day and always before midnight (I felt each account should be written the day of, to make it more legit). The iPod Touch also allowed me to instantly back up my journal to Google Documents, which made me feel assured that all my hard work wouldn’t be lost if some random accident occurred (because there was no way in heck I was going to try it again the following year).
Now this was no easy task for me. I hate journaling. Hate it, hate it, hate it. It’s one of the reasons I’m having such a hard time with this blog. I’ve tried off and on for years to keep a journal or diary with no success. I just find them so damn boring to write. I like writing things with beginnings, middles, and ends, not the mundane details of my boring life. But I felt this was important and I was compelled to work though my annoyance to see this project through to the end. You see, I’m concerned that the family I have left today are not doing a good job of keeping a good history for the generations to come tomorrow. We don’t take family pictures, we don’t have solid records on our family background, and the older ones are dying out quickly while the younger ones are drifting apart. And though I can’t give the next generation the pictures and family records I desire, I can give them this little piece of my life and thus, a little piece of their history. I hope they appreciate it.
12 days of lazy
29 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
I’m feeling a bit lazy now that it’s the end of the year, although I’ve been pretty busy lately. I got a new part time job as a secretary and I’m putting together freelance inquiry letters to send out to children’s publishers and imprints expressing interest in proofreading. I’ve also been researching paid summer internships in publishing for next year. Yeah, I may be feeling lazy but life sure isn’t allowing me to be.
Give a hoot, read a book!
24 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: A Single Shard, Brian Jacques, children, David Almond, editing, editor, fiction, Kit's Wilderness, Leviathan, Linda Sue, Michael Scott, Nicholas Flamel, Redwall, Scott Westerfeld, The Alchemyst, writing, young adult
This week I volunteered at the Salvation Army, helping to pass out books during the Toys for Tots program. I worked the young adult and teen book table, since this is the area I know and love best. There were many books there I easily recognized: David Almond’s Kit’s Wilderness, Linda Sue’s A Single Shard, and books from the Redwall series by my favorite author Brian Jacques. But there were also many books there I didn’t recognize: The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) by Michael Scott, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and so many others. It made me realize how out of the loop I’ve been lately with children’s fiction and how this is simply unacceptable for an aspiring editor like myself. There use to be a time when I could afford to spare a hour or two just browsing the children’s section for any book that struck my fancy. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read by authors I never even knew existed.
My life doesn’t give me enough time to always do what I want, but I think I can spare a little time out of a day or just a week for reading, because I would really like to get back into the loop. I want to be able to tell someone about a book without first having to look on the back cover to find out. And I want to know my craft, so that when the day comes when I finally become an editor I can be confident in my knowledge and abilities. Between going to school, working a new job, writing a novel, researching editing, and reading books, 2012 looks like it will be a very busy year for me indeed. I can’t wait.
Can I ask you a question?
19 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: book, cover letter, editing, editor, information, internship, interview, publishing, query, questions, self published, writing
My dream to become an editor is usually on my mind everyday. As I said before, I’m still struggling with ways I can improve my abilities without the aid of an internship or access to people in the field. I make up for this by doing things like practicing editing self-published books I download on the Internet or just by simply reading books and studying the different ways in which they are written. I doubt that’s enough, but it’s better than nothing.
I also spend time scouring editorial assistant job ads to see what different publishing companies are looking for. One thing I noticed right away is that many editorial assistant positions require experience in office work. This is good news for me since 80% of my working background has been in office or office related positions. But I know in order to be a cut above the rest I would need to bring something extra to the table. People who have publishing internships under their belts will clearly have an advantage. I have experience in a media related profession too, but it’s in journalism as a reporter and I’ve heard that this might actually hurt more than help me.
I think I would feel better about my chances and what I could be doing in the meantime if I knew exactly what a book editor does. It’s just not enough to find articles and job descriptions online to satisfy my curiosity. I want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So I’m going to find myself an editor (or editors) and see if any will be willing to do an informational interview with me. I’m still working out the details and how I might go about doing this, but here’s what I have so far. I’ve been slowly putting together a list of questions I would like to know about the job and it’s duties. My goal is between 7-10 question. I have about 4 at the moment. Once I have all my questions, my next step will be to track down some willing editors.
This is the part I’m still working on. Since I don’t live anywhere near a publishing company, I know these interviews will have to take place via email. How I go about contacting these people will largely take place via email too, with the help of a letter that’s somewhere between a query and a cover letter. I haven’t decided yet who I’m going to contact, but I know I would like to send out my requests sometime in January. I’ll keep everyone posted on how this goes and of course any and all suggestions welcomed.
When you have nothing to say
18 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: blogging, difficult, writing
I’m finding blogging difficult. Not in the sense that writing is hard, but coming up with material is. Also, blogging feels too much like keeping a journal or diary, and I never managed to do that. I’ll keep trying…
Back for the first time
10 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
Lately I’ve been getting back into writing. It’s been a long time coming. I quit after some bitterness at being rejected over and over again by literary agents, but that’s a long story in another life. I honestly never thought I would find my way back. All my ideas had dried up and the thought of writing yet another novel that would never see the publishing light of day depressed me. I hated writing.
But then ebooks and self-publishing finally began to take off and it was like seeing a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Finally, there was hope. Now I can’t stop the ideas from coming. I recently finished the second chapter of a new book and it’s looking good. Finding my love for writing again feels like welcoming back an old friend. It’s good to be back.
