Day in the Life of an Idiot

 On Sunday, I got an email containing the copy-edits of Unjust Cause from Wizard Tower Press.

I'm not very far along yet, but I have stetted a number of things that are a matter narrative voice and/or of personal choice. I mean, the copy editor had crossed out "pennies" and written in "loose change." There's actually no need to change what I wrote, and mine is more specific, so... back to pennies, it is. I can see why, in that particular moment, the copy editor might have felt that loose change was more accurate since the earlier scene involves a number of coins that are not pennies. I don't care. I like the sound of the phrase "a rain of pennies" more than "a rain of loose change" and I am the author, so I get final say.

But, I mean, if that's my biggest complaint? It's so much better than the time that one of Penguin's copy editors didn't seem to understand what "Spidey Sense" was. 

Anyone who reads my journal regularly, however, knows how much I, in particular, need a copy editor. So, I might complain, but gods bless anyone who catches all my typos and fixes my overuse of commas.

I'm not sure if I talked about this here yet, but I also have had a conversation with the artist who will be designing my cover. I had to provide something called "an artist's brief" which I have never had to do before in my life, so I just made it into a chatty discussion of what the book is about with images of South Dakota and the kinds of stone eagles that buildings in the US have (since I wasn't sure if my artist was from the UK or not, since my publisher is... )  So, I'm looking forward to seeing that. I will say that I'm probably less picky about my covers than I am about copy edits since I have had some TERRIBLE covers in the past from Penguin.

No one should ever forget noodle appendage lady on the cover of Honeymoon of the Dead.

So, that's what I'll be working on today, I imagine. 

Otherwise, I don't know. I've been feeling kind of low-energy/borderline sad the last few days and I think it's just my body realizing that spring is coming... but isn't quite here yet.  I'm not sure. We are thinking of painting the kitchen finally, so that's a fun project to look forward to... like I said, part of it is a kind of underlying feeling of restlessness to get STARTED on spring things, while knowing I simply have to wait at least until the snow is gone.