Maureen Bush

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

The Veil Weavers

The editing of The Veil Weavers is complete. It’s always a little scary, letting go of a story. I comfort myself by remembering I get one more crack at it when I get the page proofs.

And we have a cover! It’s starting to feel like a real book, although I won’t be able to actually hold it until next April.

Maureen

Muddling Along

I’m supposed to be editing, but I’ve had no brain for it. I’ve been pulled in a million directions – summer and family and renovations and planning for fall (both daughters heading to university, one out of town). The garden has been growing voraciously, and we’ve been fighting back. I dug out a clematis bent on world domination, getting stronger every time I cut it back. We’ve taken out at least three compost bins worth of trimmings and weeds.

I have odds and bits to do for the Banff course in September, admin work I’m simply ignoring, and I just remembered the pending deadline for a grant application.

What I really need to be doing is editing the third in the Veil of Magic series. It’ll be out in the spring, so the pressure is on to get the manuscript ready for publicity before the release date.

We’re still editing for content, although I’ve been assured the remainder won’t be extensive, as the manuscript is quite clean. For now, the focus is on working threads a little deeper, intensifying, adding tumult and more magic. I love all that, couldn’t possibly argue against more magic, and yet… my brain has had no sparkle, no creativity to launch in and tackle this.

Until this weekend.

I was woken in the night by drunks partying on the street (hot night, open window), and instead of settling back to sleep I found myself sitting in the living room with a note pad, writing out the changes I want to make.

I’m hoping I can find a quiet time and quiet mind to finish this round of editing without having to write in the middle of the night.

Maureen

A Week in the Mountains

While I’ve had much less trouble with asthma this summer than in many years, the altitude at the Athabasca Glacier nailed me. I spent our first two days in Jasper being quiet while my husband and younger daughter went adventuring.

Luckily for me, we were in a rather expensive unit (booked late, lucky to get anything) at our favorite spot, and I had the perfect writing place. I turned a high-backed soft chair to face the corner windows, looking out over mountains and lake and trees, set my tea on a nearby table, and settled in to work through several manuscripts.

When I got restless I walked along the lake, a little more comfortably every half-day as my lungs recovered.

I had time to think about a couple of stories; I mean, to really think. To catch up to where I’d written, to polish a little, to decide I really do like where they’re going. To figure out what comes next.

Now we’re home for the rest-of-summer chaos, including debating titles and editing the third in the Veil of Magic series, finishing the reno, settling one daughter in Ottawa for university, and helping another get organized for university here in Calgary. Then I’ll be off to Banff for a week in September, for more writing. I think my couple of days of quiet in Jasper may be my only quiet-just-for-writing time until mid-September.

Maureen

Manuscript on the Trail

I took the manuscript for the third in the Veil of Magic series with me on our trip into the mountains, to check on details before we settle in to another round of editing. I found one error and was terribly thrown by it, as we drove up and down the Kootenay Park valley checking on locations. But once I’d figured out how I wanted to fix it, it was pretty simple.

The photo’s of the Vermilion River, just south of Marble Canyon.

Maureen