Sunday, March 25, 2012

Exclaiming About Jake!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!

Are musicians excitable people? Or is is just writing about Jake that inspires them to fill their work with exclamation marks? I'm thinking it's probably a bit of both. I removed approximately 879 exclamation marks from the approximately 200 pages of the manuscript. Let's see, that's an average of 4.39 exclamations per page. Yup, sounds about right. But don't worry. I still left at least two per page :-)

Friday, March 9, 2012

The book is almost finished!

Yesterday I wandered through the book section of the Harvard Coop, indulging in one of my favorite pastimes: imagining which of the tables will feature my book. I've done this many times before, but this was the first time that I've had a publishing contract that would result in the book being sold there, or anywhere.  It was a very nice feeling!

I'm editing now, so this is the book I'm relaying on these days:


Yup, the good ole Chicago Manual of Style. Everything I ever wanted to know about editorial style and methods and lots more.


But it's exciting to have gotten this far. I have hundreds of stories from 165 contributors, a wonderful mix of humor, nostalgia, affection, and very warm memories. I never know what awaits each time I open my email folder or stop by the Post Office.

The manuscript should go to the publisher by the end of March and we're aiming for an October publication date.