Maureen Bush

Squirrel Defeat

After many years of grudgingly tolerating squirrels feasting at the bird feeder, I have finally bought a squirrel-proof feeder. I wanted to set out food for the birds as it gets colder, but couldn’t afford to keep up with squirrel appetites.

Now I’ll watch to see how long it takes for the squirrels to defeat the design.

Maureen

Phone Editing

I just spent an hour on the phone with my editor, doing one more round with the page proofs for The Veil Weavers.

I had a digital version of the page proofs so we could flip pages easily, and even do searches to see whether a particular word had been used nearby. And still I found it difficult to work aurally.

I’ve noticed this before – I think best if I can see and manipulate the text.

Some edits I managed just by reading, and some I typed into a Word file, so I could see them and play with alternative phrasings. But I tired quickly.

We were also horrified to be finding typos. Still! Arghhhhh. How can they be so elusive? As a reader I hate typos – the lack of attention to detail makes me distrust the writer and the editor. So the thought of any making it into the printed book makes me shudder. The question is: will any elude us?

Maureen

Life With Squirrels

We have a wooden bird feeder that squirrels can awkwardly perch on and feed from, but I haven’t minded sharing. Until this year. A canny black squirrel figured out how to lift the top, push up the glass panel, and climb right in.

I guess it’s time for a squirrel-proof bird feeder.

Maureen

Writing Through Distractions

Now that I’m finished with the Veil Weavers page proofs (well, almost – they’re back for one more look), I’m settling back into writing my new story. Well, I’ve been working on it for a while, so perhaps I should call it my current project. But I worry about distractions.

This year seems to have been particularly bad for distractions, although perhaps it’s always this way and I just found it more…well, distracting.

Anyway, I fear Christmas. I want to be finding wonderful stocking stuffers, and herbing nuts (oh, there must be another way to write that!) Finding a Christmas tree. But I also want to be immersed in writing.

Perhaps the real problem is how much time writing needs. It sucks up every bit of time I can give, and still demands more. I always want to be accomplishing more, moving faster, going deeper. And so everything else becomes a distraction.

I think this says a lot about the joy of writing, and the absorption that is natural, but I’m not sure this is the best way to live, to always feel like I’m not doing enough.

I need to remember the good writing days, when I write and write and write, and finally stop, done. Content. And ready to do something else.

Maureen

Finished Proofing

All the corrections for the page proofs are in the mail. Now I’m really almost totally done editing The Veil Weavers.

There will be the inevitable phone calls, as other people find odds and bits to correct or consider changing, but this may be it for paperwork until the book itself arrives next spring. Or not. There’s something oddly unpredictable about publishing.

Maureen