While some of you have been busy making resolutions and others have been completing that old meme that asks you to look back over the past year and evaluate it, I've just been trying to keep my head above water. I've been crazy busy over the holidays, what with a new book in final production and a series of unexpected life turns. For example, in the week between Christmas and New Year, we learned of 2 broken backs, one dying cancer patient, one botched dialgnostic test that put a dear friend into a coma with brain damage, and 4 deaths. None were family members, but all were friends and associates--dear people without whom our lives will be poorer. And at the same time, I received an electronic copy and a physical proof copy of my book, combed through them, sent in 60-some changes, received a second electronic proof, combed through that, and sent in 40-some additional changes. I know that sounds like a lot of alterations, but most result from one factor. My book on self-publishing has a tendency to give an example of what Not to do, and then how to fix it. But the diligent young typesetters don't seem to get the point. They keep changing my bad examples to a more correct form. I haven't been sure whether to laugh or cry. I've also been trying to design a bookmark to go with the new book -- not my strong suit, I'm afraid. I finally decided that since the title is "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese," the bookmark ought to be a piece of cheese. Good idea, I think, but hard to make happen for someone who is definitely not an artistic type. I sent the designs off yesterday afternoon. Will wait and see how they turn out before I reveal them. So, back to resolutions. I haven't made any, and I haven't done an evaluation of the past year, either. But I've been noticing a pattern to what the rest of you are doing. I've decided that the change from one year to the next means the most to the young, and that it becomes less and less of an "EVENT" as people get older. Is that just a truism, or have I discovered something? My personal explanation? By now, I know myself well enough to know what I can change and what I can't. I'm more accepting of my weaknesses -- at least I feel less guilty about them. And when I do realize that I need to make a chanage, I just do it. . . . . And as I wrote those words, the phone rang, bringing word that the cancer patient mentioned above just died this morning. He was my husband's best friend. I need to go deal. More later. |
