Fatuous Friday: What I Do All Day

You say you’ve gone into semi-retirement. What exactly does that mean? What is your basic day like now?

I wake up around noon. Watch TV all day. Eat bon bons. Around 7:00 p.m., I eat some fast food, then get all spiffied up and hit the local dance bars until 2:00 a.m. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Oh, wait. That was college.

I basically do the same thing as I did before, but freelance and on a project by project basis. A publisher will call me up and ask if I’m interested in managing a project. If I have the time and the interest, I take it on. If I hate the book or need a break, I pass.

I take the project from manuscript submission to press ready—sometimes doing the work myself, sometimes outsourcing it to other contacts. I do the same thing for self-publishers.

I mostly work from home, rather than at an office, although sometimes I’ll go onsite for a project. Just depends on the needs of the project.

I don’t really have a basic day. It changes depending on the project. If I’m not too busy, I get caught up here on these LDSP sites. If I miss posting here, or post late in the day, it’s usually because I’ve got a deadline I’m rushing to meet.

Fatuous Friday

Do you have any embarrassing habits that you’d like to confess? We all love you here. It’s safe. We’d never tell. Promise.

No.

If you could live any other place but Utah, where would it be and why?


Hmmm. Never thought about that much. I really like South Dakota in the summer—it’s got pretty mountains, like Utah, but it’s GREEN. Arizona or New Mexico in the winter—because I like the dry air and I hate the snow and cold. Definitely a small town. I don’t like the fast pace of the bigger cities.

Or maybe somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s gorgeous there.

I’ve also thought it would be nice to live in Greece, or maybe Australia.

Fatuous Friday

What brand of toothpaste do you use?


Aquafresh Extreme Clean. I like the way it foams up. It’s like a little party in my mouth. I alternate between the Whitening Action and the Freshening Action.

Shampoo?


It depends on the season. In the winter I use a more moisturizing shampoo; in summer, a lighter one. I really like the 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioners because I’m lazy. I like Suave, Garnier and Pantene Pro V. Not a big fan of Dove.

Deodorant?


Whatever is on sale, usually in a powder scent. Right now, I have Suave 24-Hour Protection Powder Aerosol Anti-Perspirant/Deodorant in the 4 oz. size.

Fatuous Friday: The Power of the Pedi

Do you ever get pedicures? And if you do, what is your favorite color of toenail polish?


Yes! A good pedi can revitalize your spirits and make your day. There is this one little shop I found in—ooops! almost gave away too much—anyway, I love them. They do spectacular work.

My favorite color toenail polish is not a color, but a seasonal design. So if it’s July, I go with red, white, and blue. If it’s October, I go with black and little pumpkins on my big toe. If it’s February…well, you get the idea.

Fatuous Friday: My Summer Reading List

I won’t be posting any reviews, but here is my Summer Reading Thing List:

  • Bone Warriors by Bron Bahlmann (Interested to see what a teen can do.)
  • Trail of Storms by Marcia Ward (One of my reviewers told me I had to read it. I am nothing, if not obedient.)
  • A few others that I’m waiting to come out later in the summer

Fatuous Friday

Do you ever feel like jumping the LDS ship and moving to New York where you could be rich and famous?


No. I am committed to the LDS industry. Although I might consider working with national titles that promote LDS values and themes.

But I would love to be rich and famous right here in this little niche. (It could happen.) (Maybe.) (Whatever—a girl can dream. . .)

I’m interested in your Whitney picks. And I’m also interested to know if you edited any of the Whitney finalists. But I suspect those questions are in the same category as “who are you?”…


Whitney picks: Two of my picks won.

Editing: Uhm, well, I better not say. However, there were several nominees and finalists that made my red pen twitch.

Fatuous Friday

Welcome to the first of the Friday all-about-me posts, where I answer your questions about me without giving you any real information as to my true identity. Fatuous Friday will continue as long as you continue to ask questions about me, or until I get bored, whichever comes first.

Why did you go into publishing?

  1. I love words, books, reading, stories.
  2. I have an ego the size of Texas and believe I can polish up anyone’s work and make it shine like a diamond.
  3. Someone dared me to do it and I didn’t have anything better to do with my time. (This is true, btw.)

Not All Publishers Are As Nice As Me

Talk about a fast response. I’m afraid someone may have burns on their fingertips from typing this e-mail so fast.

You are nice? Maybe I’ll believe that. Most publishers are nice? No way. Don’t give us hope that our publishers will return a nice and reasonable response to our requests or challenges. They don’t. At least, not in my experience!!! When you hold out hope, it just depresses us more when that hope is dashed against the sharp rocks of reality.

Okay. I’ll grant you that. Not all publishers are nice. In fact, at Booksellers I spoke with several authors who gave me an ear full–not about me, about some of the other publishers.

So, comment away. Tell us all about your crazy, mean and inconsiderate publishers. The only rules are:

  1. No swearing.
  2. No identification of yourself (don’t want to get you in trouble).
  3. No indentification of your publisher (don’t want to get sued).

Can I Just Rant?

Every once in awhile I get so frustrated I just have to blow off some steam!! And since I can’t take it out on the person causing the frustration, you guys get to hear about it.

This is for all authors, especially those writing non-fiction and using quotes:

It is NOT my job to teach you how to quote and do the citations correctly!

It is YOUR job to MAKE SURE you are doing it correctly BEFORE you send me your manuscript!

Here are just a few basics for quoting someone, especially from a published source:

1. You must have permission. I want hard copy, signed forms for my files. (Do not send the permission forms with the submission; I will ask for them upon acceptance.)

2. You must quote correctly–every word, every comma, every italics must be in the right place.

3. If you delete words from the quote, insert ellipses (…).

4. If you add your own words or commentary to the quote, put it in brackets [].

5. If you add italics to the quote, put “italics added” at the end of the citation.

6. Do some research and use one of the standard methods of citation for your quotes. Be consistent. Do every quote the same way.

7. Put citations within parentheses ().

8. Before you submit to me, have someone with experience in editing and in citations go through your mss and make sure your quotes are correct. Have them check each quotation against the original. (You should have photocopies of every quote from its original source and photocopies of the title page AND the copyright page of every book you quoted from. You should have them organized in a way that you can find that original within minutes of my asking to see it.)

9. If a book has been revised, make sure you quote the most current edition.

Everyone makes a mistake occasionally. That is fine. But when I find consistent mishandling of citations and when I spot check quote correctness I find missing or wrong words or punctuation, it’s three strikes and you’re out. My thought process is that if you can’t do the research to learn how to cite correctly and you’re not careful enough with the details to make sure your quotes are actually quoted correctly, then there are probably a lot more mistakes in the mss and it will take WAY TOO MUCH of my time to get it print ready.

Okay, I’m done ranting. We’ll go back to our regularly scheduled posting tomorrow.

What Are Your Personal Favs?

What are some of your personal favorite LDS fiction books? What did you like about them?

I don’t feel comfortable answering that because I don’t really want to promote one LDS book over another.* But I’d love to have all of you blog readers answer that question.

In the comments trail, list your three favorite LDS books (with author names) and give us at least one specific reason that you liked them.

*I’m really just afraid it will give away my identity…and you know how paranoid I am about that, right?