Mr. Barnett and I sauntered out of the building. The sun lay warm across my neck as we turned back onto Park Row and ambled up the sidewalk toward City Hall, out of sync with the rest of the world’s go-getter pace.
“I’m glad that’s over,” I said. My heart continuously shredded and patched back up again with anxiety and euphoria. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d have been able to last. For better or for worse our magazine had gone to print and there was nothing left to do but wait. Besides—happiness had the top-hand at present.
Mr. Barnett shrugged out of his coat and draped it over his arm. “I’m glad too.”
Euphoria fell to the bottom and nerves rose to the top again. “But I’m sure I’ll find some dreadful mistake when it comes out,” I fretted. “I’ll have spelled a dozen words wrong in one paragraph, or have broken all the most elementary rules of grammar…”
“Tell me, Callie, are you in the habit of spelling poorly?”
“Well…no.” I wouldn’t say it to him, but I rather prided myself on my ability to spell words like “different” and “separate” and “independent” without replacing the E’s with A’s and vice-versa.
“And do you often slip up with your grammar?”
“…yes.”
“Well, I suppose that can’t be helped.” Mr. Barnett laughed. “But at present I feel merry as a wedding bell over our prospects. Ladybird Snippets is an official magazine now, and I do believe she’ll have a fabulous take-off.”
(excerpt from Fly Away Home)
It's a fabulous feeling, setting up shop and having important appointments to keep and emails which need prompt replies and a planner filled with a schedule of Things To Do.
I am sure my family will be quite pleased when I resurface and rejoin the world of the living. Ever since launching this publishing thingy I've been living in my Lair. It's a nice Lair...sunshine-y, lovely, pasted all over with inspiration and books and things. But it's one room and one room is a little bit stifling after a bit. Yesterday I spent upload times (yes, it took me 8 uploads to figure out the correct margins in Createspace) doing exercises so my muscles won't atrophy.
Tomorrow marks one week until the cover reveal! I can't wait to show you the beautiful cover Rachel Rossano designed for me. Until then, here is the final Ruby Elixir Emblem as created for me by Daniel Tate:
He shall show up on the spines of all my books. I am pleased. It all "felt real" (as opposed to unreal? My, my, we are getting philosophical) when I saw Bertie (the mole, not the Anne-girl) on the cover of Fly Away Home. One by-product of feeling so hopelessly tired (sic) of this novel is that I am majorly inspired with so many other projects. I am trying to reign in these wild ideas and concentrate the energy into projects I already have going. We shall see. In addition to all this, I started lessons with my first non-related writing student. She actually lives in PA so we are doing this correspondence-wise and I cannot wait to teach her for the next couple of months.
Readables:
I've been hanging out in Jill Williamson's Outcasts for some time. Should finish reading/reviewing that book today. It's been cool to read something of hers, as I haven't done much in that arena since our critique group disbanded. (Did I ever tell you that is how I know Jill and Stephanie?) I've also been gobbling The Red House Mystery which has me laughing aloud and loving Milne more than ever - I'm a sucker for a cozy mystery with lovable characters. And in addition to that, Orthodoxy by Chesterton is lurking in the wings till I finish Outcasts, as which point I shall also start Stephen Lawhead's Hood and Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Business, darlings.
Blog Treasure:
This week has been a remarkable one for good blog posts. Among my favorites are:
I suppose recently the best posts have not had much to do with writing at all...they've been more like soul-renewers...which is really what counts and keeps your writing going.
Posts
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