My six-year-old has been home from school for a few days, with a familiar strep infection. (He was fine the day after he was diagnosed, but we needed to make sure he wasn't contagious.)
I'll bet most kids get kind of quiet when they're sick. Not my son. For some reason, he gets even more talkative than usual.
29 July 2009
26 July 2009
Editor
There are certain advantages to working with a small (very small) publishing company. I have a great deal of autonomy, for example, which I'm usually quick to take advantage of. But so do many of the authors I work with. In fact, most of the projects tend to be author-driven, and this can become a source of difficulty.
Lots of people seem to think they have a book in them. What they need, however, is an Editor.
I occasionally work on books by and about celebrities you've forgotten (or have probably never heard of). Many of these are autobiographical, some are better written than others, but many of them are long — they often go on for hundreds of pages, past the end of career and visibility, into retirement and stories of family and friends. Detail that is, I've no doubt, important to the person writing it, though not necessarily of interest to the person reading. (I recently finished a book by a not-particularly-well-known actor that ran to 400 pages, only a third of those about his career in Hollywood.)
And then there are the authors who want their book to be the last word on the chosen subject. I was working on one of those last week, an exhaustive book on a long-running TV show. The series ran for 251 episodes over the course of eleven years, and that alone would make just about any book a labor-intensive project — but in the absence of any guidance, the authors seem to have given in to their enthusiasm.
This book is packed with incredible, almost unbelievable amounts of detail. It could be a truly useful and valuable resource, if only so many of those details weren't so much minutiae. There are entire sections, close to a hundred pages in total, of not much more than lists of the passing references in each episode that describe the various characters' personal histories, with observations on when something contradicts something someone else said somewhere else. That's interesting, I suppose (or at least, it could be) but these lists read like notes that were hastily scribbled while watching a DVD.
I admire the hard work that goes into an endeavor like this, I really do, but what this project needed was for someone to sift through everything and make the difficult decisions about what was truly necessary, and how and where it might best be used. (It fell to me to offer my own suggestions.) For want of that, this will likely end up as an 800-page book that purports to be thorough, but is leaden with fluff.
There are also, however, books that are so thoroughly and meticulously researched, so densely packed with detail that you wonder how it all fit into 500-odd pages — This is one of them, and this is another. (I put both of those books together, though I had nothing to do with the covers.) Those projects were a pleasure to work on, even under difficult circumstances (both had to be put together rather quickly) because so much forethought had already been put into them.
I think I become more involved in the books I work on than many designers — correcting errors, offering suggestions, often acting as a de facto Editor. It usually means more work for me, but it's much more interesting this way.
Lots of people seem to think they have a book in them. What they need, however, is an Editor.
I occasionally work on books by and about celebrities you've forgotten (or have probably never heard of). Many of these are autobiographical, some are better written than others, but many of them are long — they often go on for hundreds of pages, past the end of career and visibility, into retirement and stories of family and friends. Detail that is, I've no doubt, important to the person writing it, though not necessarily of interest to the person reading. (I recently finished a book by a not-particularly-well-known actor that ran to 400 pages, only a third of those about his career in Hollywood.)
And then there are the authors who want their book to be the last word on the chosen subject. I was working on one of those last week, an exhaustive book on a long-running TV show. The series ran for 251 episodes over the course of eleven years, and that alone would make just about any book a labor-intensive project — but in the absence of any guidance, the authors seem to have given in to their enthusiasm.
This book is packed with incredible, almost unbelievable amounts of detail. It could be a truly useful and valuable resource, if only so many of those details weren't so much minutiae. There are entire sections, close to a hundred pages in total, of not much more than lists of the passing references in each episode that describe the various characters' personal histories, with observations on when something contradicts something someone else said somewhere else. That's interesting, I suppose (or at least, it could be) but these lists read like notes that were hastily scribbled while watching a DVD.
I admire the hard work that goes into an endeavor like this, I really do, but what this project needed was for someone to sift through everything and make the difficult decisions about what was truly necessary, and how and where it might best be used. (It fell to me to offer my own suggestions.) For want of that, this will likely end up as an 800-page book that purports to be thorough, but is leaden with fluff.
There are also, however, books that are so thoroughly and meticulously researched, so densely packed with detail that you wonder how it all fit into 500-odd pages — This is one of them, and this is another. (I put both of those books together, though I had nothing to do with the covers.) Those projects were a pleasure to work on, even under difficult circumstances (both had to be put together rather quickly) because so much forethought had already been put into them.
I think I become more involved in the books I work on than many designers — correcting errors, offering suggestions, often acting as a de facto Editor. It usually means more work for me, but it's much more interesting this way.
18 July 2009
Walter Cronkite
His final broadcast as anchor for the CBS Evening News happened to fall on my birthday. I went out to dinner with my family, of course, but I brought along a portable radio and earphones so I could listen to his farewell. (The local CBS affiliate was Channel 6, and the audio could be heard at the lower end of the FM dial.)
That's what I'll always remember when I think of Walter Cronkite.
That's what I'll always remember when I think of Walter Cronkite.
17 July 2009
The Washing Machine of Tomorrow
Our new Washing Machine was just delivered. Out with the old model, which had served faithfully for almost ten years (the past six of those with a child in the house). It broke down almost three months ago, Sears attempted to repair it about two months ago (but didn't), and the problem was finally (properly) diagnosed about a month ago. To repair it, we would have spent more than half of what a new model would cost. (That, and it would have continued our frustrating relationship with Sears Appliance Repair service.) So this was an easy decision to make.(As an aside: don't ever call Sears for appliance repair service. Or at least, don't say I didn't tell you so. We had to wait weeks for a diagnosis and attempted repair, they tried several times to reschedule without notifying us in advance, and they completely misdiagnosed the problem. And when all was said and done, we had to pester them to get an acknowledgment that the original misdiagnosis had been in error, and obtain a refund.)
In the meanwhile, we've been doing laundry at the Laundromat. I don't much mind, and there's one nearby that I like to use, because it's usually empty and quiet (though I just start a load and go off to run errands, anyway).
This one has nifty whiz-bang light-up buttons and an LCD display, and it plays a little tune when you turn it on and off. (No, really.) In fact, the button you press to start the wash cycle is modeled after the familiar "play" button from a cassette deck or VCR — I know, I'm dating myself — or DVD player. (My six-year-old will love this.)
In the end, it was the mechanical timer mechanism that failed the old model, after so many twists and turns. Ten years seems a good, solid run for a heavily-used appliance, don't you think?
Now I wonder how much longer the Dryer is going to last...
After The Rain
The day is getting closer. It can't come soon enough — it's becoming more and more difficult to persuade my six-year-old not to eat the wild raspberries as they turn up, to wait just a few more days for them to appear, everywhere.
15 July 2009
Search me!
I'm not sure why, but the "search" function on this page seems to be hit-and-miss these days. I'll try to fix that soon.
14 July 2009
Summer School
Summer school started this week. (It actually started last week, but my son was away.) We were offered the opportunity for my son to attend by the School District, even though he'd been moved out of a smaller special education class toward the end of the school year. I was eager to take them up on it — I thought somehow it might help prepare him for next year.
I've no idea what might have given me that impression (or what I was thinking). His summer class is, essentially, the environment he left behind, months ago. (In fact, many of the same students are there.) The classwork is far, far behind what he had been doing in his mainstream class. He's doesn't seem frustrated by it, not really (not yet), but I think he is a bit bothered that he isn't learning anything new and novel.
And I'm beginning to wonder if it's become a challenge for him to deal with his former classmates. As he spent more time with his larger mainstream class through the school year, that class became his peer group. Socialization with other children was always one of his weak points (part of his Autism), but he's shown great improvement from moving into an environment where he has more typical kids to interact with (and learn behavioral cues from). Now he's back among the problem behaviors of his former classmates, and I think he's finding that to be difficult at times.
Thankfully, his teacher for the Summer was his teacher for Kindergarten (and for last Summer, as well), and knows him well. And we know her well enough to ask how he's getting along, and if she feels this is best for him.
I've already promised him we won't do this again next year, that I'll try to find something better.
I've no idea what might have given me that impression (or what I was thinking). His summer class is, essentially, the environment he left behind, months ago. (In fact, many of the same students are there.) The classwork is far, far behind what he had been doing in his mainstream class. He's doesn't seem frustrated by it, not really (not yet), but I think he is a bit bothered that he isn't learning anything new and novel.
And I'm beginning to wonder if it's become a challenge for him to deal with his former classmates. As he spent more time with his larger mainstream class through the school year, that class became his peer group. Socialization with other children was always one of his weak points (part of his Autism), but he's shown great improvement from moving into an environment where he has more typical kids to interact with (and learn behavioral cues from). Now he's back among the problem behaviors of his former classmates, and I think he's finding that to be difficult at times.
Thankfully, his teacher for the Summer was his teacher for Kindergarten (and for last Summer, as well), and knows him well. And we know her well enough to ask how he's getting along, and if she feels this is best for him.
I've already promised him we won't do this again next year, that I'll try to find something better.