Thursday, August 20, 2015

My Daughter, My Savior

I have worked since Tuesday night editing and proofing the nine stories that will go into the first volume of Christmas stories that I am putting together. I spent all day, all afternoon and all evening working on these stories on Wednesday. I did a half hour of editing and proofing this morning before work, and an hour tonight when I got home from having my hair cut. Got it all done in basically three days or less.

So, I had started a single file in preparation for self publishing this volume- putting in the title page, the copyright stuff and disclaimer, the dedication and about author page. When I was ready to begin uploading the individual stories into the file Kelly said, "I'll do that!" Several of these stories are my earliest Christmas stories, dating back to the late 90's when I first started writing them, and I had really just begun using a computer after stubbornly refusing to give up the electric typewriter for years and years. (I can't believe I'd been so resistant to using the computer when it is so far advanced over a typewriter! I guess I was a traditionalist back then.)  I didn't know anything about margins, spacing, tabs, etc.  I hand spaced everything- and she had to fix that mess in five of the nine stories (fortunately they were five shorter ones, not the big ones!!)- tedious labor, especially when she kept saying she wanted to go to bed, and I kept saying, "Well, it's not going anywhere, you can work on this some more tomorrow," and she'd reply "I'll just finish this one." And the next thing I know, she's working on the next one...a little OCD? Um, I'm not saying, but I believe it does run in families.

Long story short- all nine stories have been uploaded into the single file and she has completed the table of content with correct page numbers and everything. My last chore was to plug in the About the Author page at the end. Tomorrow night after work I can review the file, fix any spacing issues to tidy it up, then look it all over to see if I spot any errors- and then this one will be ready for CreateSpace magic. I want to download some pictures from my cellphone that I shot at a Christmas shop of various decorated trees (close-ups) that I might be able to use as cover art. I haven't done a book yet using a picture that I've taken myself, so it'll be trial and error. I'm hoping it won't be too difficult. I'd really like to use my own photographs on my book covers since photography is another hobby of mine, and I have tons of great pictures to choose from.

I honestly don't know what I would do without my computer whiz kid in the house! (Big high five to Kelly who paid off her last student loan tonight and is now college debt free! She graduated in May 2013- thank God she didn't have so much loan debt that she'd be paying it off until retirement! Now she can save her earnings to use toward replacing her 2007 Corolla, and maybe a down payment on a condo? But for now, she can continue to live at home and keep saving her money. When she's sick of Mom and Dad and ready for complete independence she can go wherever she wants to go...she'll only be a phone call, a text message or a Skype chat away wherever she decides to live- even if it's Portugal!)

Love you, Kelly! You are positively, absolutely, undeniably and without a doubt the very best daughter this side of Jupiter!

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