I've been on the road pretty much non-stop this month, traveling to Philadelphia and northern California to collect data for various evaluation projects. I've blogged before about writing in hotel rooms; it can be a strangely liberating activity. There is something about being in a sterile environment with few distractions that unfreezes the blockage we writers fear so much.A writing activity that does NOT lend itself to hotel rooms or indeed any venue outside of my messy office, however, is dealing with page proofs. Since most of the author queries I get involve citations, I need to be able to consult my files and reference books. It is even easier to check URLs when I can spread out the paper pages and make notations on them while I am looking at the online screen.
So I've spent this afternoon -- when I would have much preferred to be outside -- sitting at my desk and methodically working my way through page after page of the copyedited manuscript for the book, which I think the marketing department at ALA has decided to call Twenty-First Century Libraries for Twenty-First Century Kids. I'm not done, but I've made a good start; and I'll be able to finish before the deadline they've given me.
Much as I dread this task, I am consumed with gratitude for the copyeditor. She catches every silly typo and fixes my syntax and makes sure that there is an entry in the reference list for every citation in the text. I am truly humbled by how many things she finds to fix in my deathless prose. Thank you, Ms. Crabtree, for your attention to detail and your respect for my writing style.
