August 2025 – Writing Wrongs

Final page proofs and fine-feathered friends

This week, I reviewed the final page proofs for The Pansy Paradox. So, there you go. I have a benchmark of 142,000 words listened to/proofed in a work week.

I’m not going to lie. It was a lot. Mind you, I didn’t listen straight through. I took breaks every thirty minutes or so—made a cup of tea, wandered outside, touched some grass. I’m pleased that I made it through the entire novel. I’m not too worried about proofing the novella since it’s only 25,000 words. (Ha, ha. Only.)

Additionally, this week, I visited the newly reopened Barnes & Noble in our area. They recently relocated to a new space, not far from their old one. I’m not sure if there are more books now, or if it simply seems that way.

I had to wander around a bit to find my touchstones (the fantasy/sci-fi section, WWII history). The staff appeared happy and were very helpful, and everyone was having a wonderful time.

The Barnes & Noble is also right next to a Michaels. This could be very convenient or very expensive. How easy would it be to load up on supplies and then grab some how-to books (or vice versa)? We will have to resist the temptation.

When I arrived home from the bookstore adventure, I found this fine-feathered friend in my driveway:

It was supremely unconcerned, as if it knew I was going to give it the right of way. (Which, of course, I did.) It remained there for so long that I started to worry it was injured. But no, it was simply waiting on something (to eat?) across the street and flew off.

And now I’m going to fly off and take advantage of the lovely weather we’re having for this long weekend.

September-ish

It’s been feeling very September-ish for the last couple of days, cool and breezy and lovely. I love September and even October (when it’s mild). It’s the whole November through March thing I don’t particularly care for. This is, not coincidentally, when we’re on standard time. Honestly, I always feel like I should be hibernating.

This week, I completed the interior layout, which in turn gave me page counts so I could download templates for the print covers. I assigned some ISBNs, and essentially, I’m at the point of final page proofs.

The plan is to use text-to-speech to listen to the text while reviewing the PDF. I’ve already charged my noise-canceling headphones. Still, nearly 170,000 words between both the novel and novella?

That’s a lot of listening.

I may need to break it up with some other activities. I don’t want to zone out and miss something. After all, the whole point is to not miss something. But if the weather stays September-ish, I’ll probably spend some of my breaks outside.

Pink sky at morning

Woke up this morning to this amazing pink and golden sky, accompanied by some thunder—but no rain, no storms (not yet, anyway). It was surreal and quiet, and the entire sky, east and west, was painted in this incredible glow.

This week, I think I finalized the covers for both The Pansy Paradox and The Capstone Conundrum. The latter was simpler since the books are part of a series, and many of the design aspects remain the same.

I’m not quite ready for a reveal. I’m still letting it rest while doing other things, like playing around with all the new features in Vellum.

I love this application, and it just keeps getting better and better. Also, my decision to invest in a Mac Studio was a good one. I really was working seamlessly between Photoshop and Vellum last week.

The only issue is switching back and forth between Mac and Windows. I use shortcuts for both, and mixing them up just might be a thing I do often. Then again, working to keep them straight could be good for my brain. Who knows.

Up next? Well, my proofreader returned the manuscripts. After reviewing all the comments, I’ll create the final Word versions and drop them into Vellum and start formatting the interior for both the ebook and print versions.

In other news, over on Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss highlights the possible class action suit against Anthropic (for training its AI on pirated books). You can read that post here. Yes, some of my books are in that database of pirated books, and yes, I’m thinking about joining the class action.

Yoga and throwing Photoshop pots

This week, I did the Photoshop equivalent of “throwing lots of pots,” to borrow a pottery phrase. I followed along with the instructor in my Photoshop tutorials and made I don’t know how many covers. After I completed one, I zipped off to create another.

By Friday, I felt I’d done enough inputting that I decided to play around with a concept for The Pansy Paradox. And … I think I have one. Maybe. It’s not at the sharing stage yet, but I’m pleased that I have something that someday may resemble a cover.

In any case, I’m looking forward to what else may pop up in the coming week.

In other news, I’ve started up yoga again. I fell off for a bit, for a variety of reasons (balance issues, injury, Italy). But it was one of the things that helped me survive the day job. So, I wondered whether it would help me thrive in my new full-time writing gig.

So far? I think yes. It’s been about two weeks, and I already feel better physically. And, people! Breath work! I’d forgotten how important breath work is.

So today, I’m going to breathe a little bit more and have Sunday brunch with my kids. Hope your Sunday is just as enjoyable.

Seven months in: another reality check

January 3^rd of this year was my last day of work. After my final check-in with my manager, she told me to go ahead and log off at noon. So I did, and had my work laptop boxed and at FedEx in less than thirty minutes.

Note: It helped that the closest FedEx Office is about two miles away.

I figured that August 3^rd is a good day to do another reality check. So, how’s it going?

In retrospect, pretty good.

I completed two paper edits of The Pansy Paradox and one of the bonus novella, The Capstone Conundrum. Yes, I love me some alliteration.
I’ve sent both books to my proofreader.
I regularly have coffee dates with a friend from my former workplace who is also a writer. This has been wonderful.
I attended the Author Platform Growth Summit, which focused on mindset, resiliency, sustainability, and alignment in an author career, rather than tactics, toxic productivity, and the hustle and grind.
I finally bought my Mac Studio and have dived headfirst into Photoshop.
I completed a read-through of The Marigold Miracle, and now I’m musing and bread-machining my way to a second draft.
I planted my cottage garden.
I’ve been taking lots of long (thinking) walks.

One thing that really stands out: None of the above feels like work. That doesn’t mean it’s without effort, or that I don’t get tired, or overwhelmed by information.

What doesn’t exist anymore in my day-to-day working life is this:

No context switching (h/t Cal Newport). The first thing I do with technology in the day is either write or use Photoshop. No email and no social media. I may have a browser open to a stock image site or Adobe fonts, or whatever. But that’s it.

No hyper-active hive mind and no pseudo productivity (h/t also Cal Newport). I do not miss Microsoft Teams or VPs/senior directors sliding into Teams chat on the regular. I really don’t miss unending email threads where someone copies me on a discussion because it “might” be a documentation issue. (And to be clear, everyone involved would love to make it a documentation issue—well, except documentation.)

So work? Doesn’t feel like work. I do want to stress that I still get tired, still need weekends to give my brain a break. But I don’t get the Sunday scaries. In fact, I really love Monday mornings.

And I couldn’t be more grateful.