Rounding up, catalogging & Yes, Virginia - writing is a real job
The last few weeks have been fraught with deadlines, several of which I am still pursuing. But in the midst of all these jobs, I find myself carefully considering the work I now do. I have been going through a consideration of my professional goals lately - writing another book is good but a freelance museum job, a small offer from NPR, editing some titles for Shorefast Editions, aviation articles for Alaska Dispatch - these are all real writing jobs too. I am finding myself suddenly, unexpectedly, a professional writer. It takes a very long time to finally refute all those naysayers from 20-30 years ago; yes, being a writer is a REAL job.
You learn something new everyday, even about yourself!
Now onto a few odds & ends:
1. From the Spring/Summer catalog for Coffee House Press includes The Devil's Snake Curve by Josh Ostergaard described as "The baseball book Howard Zinn would have written-if he had hated the Yankees" and How a Mother Weaned Her Girl From Fairy Tales, a new story collection from Kate Bernheimer. Both of these sound especially interesting to me (for reasons obvious to readers of this blog).
2. From the First Second 2014 catalog (the best graphic novel publisher around in my book) I was delighted to see Shackleton from Nick Bertozzi (all about Antarctica), In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang (a girl, some gaming, a global spanning crusade to stop exploitation online - typical Doctorow of course!), Andre the Giant by Box Brown (fans of The Princess Bride rejoice over this bio!), The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff (they had me with the author) and Above the Dreamless Dead - an anthology of adaptions from WWI poetry from the trenches.
3. I have started a new class at the gym. I'm kinda dying right now.
4. My new column is up with lots of fab graphic novels - check it out. :)
5. In case you missed this: Read 12 Masterful Essays by Joan Didion for free.
6. Courtesy Sarah at Bookworm Blues - some speculative fiction she is watching for this year and you should likely check out as well.
7. I fall more in love with the simple organization offered by Field Notes everyday and now their books have made it to the South Pole! Huzzah!
8. Today I have 2 reviews for Booklist, an article (or 3) for Dispatch and some editing. But a big project was turned in over the weekend for which I am very relieved. I also need to get my husband a Valentine's Day card because, well, he really is a good guy and cards are a very civilized thing to give someone you love. :)
