At the End of One Tunnel

Ahhh....I'm starting to envision the end of one of my book projects! I can almost see it if I squint hard enough.

I was doing some major stressing for awhile. One night last week, I had this weird dream where huge wooden boxes where falling from the sky. I mean BIG, as in the size of semi-trucks. Bam! Bam! And, as with most weird dreams like this, I woke up as I was running for my life! So, yes, to say that I've been stressed...

But, I really have made progress over the past few weeks. I just got down and dirty and wrote and wrote and made jewelry and wrote some more, and the hard work as paid off because I'm "this close" to being done! In fact, insane person that I can sometimes become when doing this sort of work, I started playing with the idea of adding more projects to the book, but I had to snap myself out of my delirium. There just isn't time, and as it is, I'm delivering more than what the contract requires any way. It's just that once I get going I find it hard to stop. One idea leads to another, and while not all the ideas are great or even good or can even work, at least I get them.

So Not a Tyra

Today I spent hours and hours shooting for my new DVD that will go with my book Picture Yourself Making Metal Clay Jewelry. I have never enjoyed getting my picture taken, and I have to say video cameras are even worse! We spent at least 3 solid hours working, probably got at least an hour of film, and I would guess that maybe five minutes of that is usable. Luckily, I have a very talented video editor, so hopefully, this poor guy will make me look like I know what I'm doing and not like a babbling idiot.

Granted, I didn't have a specific word-for-word script written, but you'd think I could say two sentences in a row without screwing it up! For all those empty-headed models and actresses out there who I know now aren't as empty-headed as I thought, I have new found respect, and I salute you!

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Academic Publishing - "Uncle Already!"

So, it's official. I'm giving up on academic publishing. I have had a real struggle with this personally because of the fact that I make money writing non-fiction, so why spend time writing academic work (which is way harder) for no obvious financial gain?

Today, I received an email from a group that had conditionally agreed to publish an article of mine as part of a book. For over a year now, they have pretty much sat on it. I made it through the first peer review. Then I was asked to participate in the second peer review, and I was super careful to thoroughly examine each article I was sent (a total of 3). All of the articles had a good deal of grammar problems, and I guess that should have been a sign.

The latest email explained that the book was changing, they had way too many articles for it, and that attached are peer reviews for me to use in revising my article so that it could be reviewed again (3rd review). I looked at the reviews. One says my article is total crap and I could say the same dribble in a table. The other says my article is fabulous and I should include pictures. What the?

This is just a little of the saga that has gone on with this supposed book for over a year now. I won't bore you with any more details.

It's not that this one issue has turned me off. It's been just about every place I've sent something. I send it, and maybe I hear back. When I do hear back, it is sometimes even a little encouraging. Then I get something like "We will get back to you in a few months." The months come and go and nothing. I write them back and, again, zip. It's just amazing to me how unprofessional these people are who are supposed to be "academics." You can't email me a simple canned "thanks but no thanks" email? I know they are all probably very busy, but heck, if you can't do the work, then don't take it on. There really is no excuse for soliciting a call for papers and then not following up on your end of the deal.

I hate to say the cliche "those who can't do teach," but in this case it really seems to fit. I write and get paid for it. They don't.

Poor Anonymous

I know I haven't been over here in a while, been bizzy, ya know. Funny thing was that I was thinking of bopping by and talking about how I lost another lb...yes, slow, but it is coming off. Or, I was thinking about writing about how I finally got some scam artists to stop calling me.

But, then I got this really funny comment posted on my blog here and I just had to laugh. No, I'm not going to approve it because it's a very meany weany post. The person had a lot of nasty stuff to say about how I'm a sucky writer and how every writer worth his or her pencil (notice how my pronouns matched there) should shun me.

Of course, this same person doesn't have the ca - hoonas (I have no clue how to spell that, sorry) to sign her name. Nope. She signed it Anonymous (and I just have this gut feeling it's a her because we gals can be so catty like this sometimes). No name, just her unsolicted opinion. Um, yes, nuff-said.

On the Radio

Check it out! I'm going to be l-i-v-e on the radio...or at least the Internet radio...over at Chick Tech this Weds. 6pm est. I'll be talking with Jennifer Mattern about professional blogging. She's an indie blogger and I'm a network blogger, so we'll be covering both sides of how to make mulla by blogging.

Virginia Woolf, You Are Not

Though it may seem to some people like my various part-time jobs are unrelated, they really aren't. For example, I'm a part-time English instructor and I'm also a part-time blog recruiter/trainer of sorts. In many ways, my tasks at these jobs are very similar. I have to help people write. This often requires that I tell them how not to write.

Very nicely, of course, I have to point out grammar problems or organizational issues in their writing and try to explain the correct way they should be writing the essay or blog entry or what-have-you.

Sometimes my student/trainee takes my "help" the wrong way, which is understandable. No one likes to be told he/she is doing something wrong. But, sometimes they try to support their wacky writing by telling me things like, "It's my style" or "I was trying to be funny."

I'm never really sure what to say to something like this. If writing comma splice after comma splice is style, then I'm at a loss. To me, when a nobody (in terms of writing career) writes like this, it means you simply don't know when and where to place a period. Learn the rules first. Then when you become a wildly famous writer and say that Dr. P in your ENC101 composition class taught you everything you know, you can write in whatever style you wish.

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I Have This Great Idea for You

Right now, I'm working on a few book proposals. One is for my dissertation that I hope will turn into a fabulously popular text in the academic book market, the other two proposals are for my bread and butter jewelry making thing. Proposals are tough to write for me because you basically spend a lot of time on them with no real assurance that all that work will turn into a book....that you'll get paid for no less...some day.

So today when I was talking with a friend, it was really hard for me to know what to say when I got the, "I have a great idea for a book for you" comment. This is something that as a writer you get used to. Same with jewelry making. Everyone has a "great idea," but they want you to carry it out.

It's very difficult for me to know how to handle this. I try the ol, "If it's such a great idea, then you should do it." But, oh, no, they don't have the time, and hey, I'm the writer! I should do it. They don't mind giving me their great idea. It's all mine. Just remember them when I get those big royalty checks.

Hell, people...I'm full of "great ideas!" I've got them coming out of my ears and other parts of my body. What I don't have is time to do them all. I've actually been seriously considering taking on a part-time assistant because I have so much work, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it would be just about impossible for me to do. I basically need to just clone myself.

As I spoke with my friend today, who was very insistent that I should drop everything and write this book...she went on and on with one idea after another...and yes, it is actually a good idea for a book...I kindly told her that I thought it was a good idea but I just didn't have the time right now. But I so know this is going to come up again when we talk in the future. So, what do you say to these people to get them to shut up about their great ideas?!

Black Hole of Academic Writing

Since graduating, I have tried to be a good little post Ph.Der and send out academic articles for possible publication. The trade writer side of me is still not comfortable with all of this writing for no money, but I know this what I'm supposed to do. I write articles about boring stuff that no one really wants to read, it gets peer reviewed, and if anyone does decide to publish my boring article, I'm supposed be totally thrilled because I can add it to my CV. This whole process is supposed to validate me in the academic community. "See, folks, I've been published by Prestigious Journal X,Y,Z, so I'm super duper important."

So, okay, all of that I can live with. Even if I don't get paid and even if the average person would think my academic writing is a yawn-fest, I, at least, still enjoy the research and writing process. But what irks me about all of this is the black hole that my articles seem to enter. I've got 2, going on 3, articles floating around out there, and I have yet to hear boo from these prestigious journals. If it's crap, then tell me it's crap and be done with it, but to sit on my work for months, even close to a year for one article, is just (I think) outrageous.

Now, I have heard a few peeps here and there from them, but usually I hear back when I've totally forgotten about them in the first place, sometimes as long as 3 months or more. Then I'm thrown a crumb: "We are still working through the review process. Thank you for your patience."

For my third article, I sent out an abstract, and honestly, I'm to the point now that this will be my last attempt to publish any more academic articles until these three articles either pan out or fizzle. With the amount of time and energy I've spent on them, I could have published a book or two. If this is how academic publishing normally operates, it's amazing anything managed to get into print at all.

Wa, Wa, Wa

After my pity party earlier, I decided to listen to my horoscope and become "creative" today. First I caught up on all my blogging work and got my newsletter done for my About.com site. Then, I spent some time on my next jewelry book proposal and I'm already on page 8! So there!

I also emailed someone I know who knows someone that might be interested in my book, and if I keep this up, I might actually get this baby to them in a few weeks. Of course, there's some jewelry to make, but some of it I already have at this stage. So things are looking up. I'm not going to let one publisher get to me. Hello! I've got 5 books published arleady, sucka! (Rocky theme song plays in the background...)

A Week of Rejection

My horoscope said I would be extra creative today, but instead I feel extra dissapointed. It's been a week of rejections for me. First, I found out that a book deal I thought I might get was given to another writer. Why? I'm not sure, and it's not really one of those things you can ask. I'm trying not to take it personally, but it's hard when you have this big long discussion with an editor one day about it only to hear a few months later that another writer got the project.

Following this, I got the rejection letter for a teaching job I interviewed for. Granted, it was kind of a relief because I was getting cold feet about taking it and was wondering how I was going to gracefully decline if I should get it, but still, it's another rejection.

These are the sort of things that can really play your with head and bring in all kinds of self-doubts; those chattering monkeys start to get really loud.

Eating Sour Grapes?

Now that my latest jewelry book is out, I have to wonder if I'm already starting to reap some karma from an as-yet unpublished book review I just sent off to a electronic-based journal. In fact, the review editor actually asked me if I was sure about my review and I ended up toning it down a little, but still, I did come out and say that I didn't like the book. His suggestion to me was that some day I may meet this author, maybe even in relation to a possible teaching job, and of course, this could make things difficult for me in the future.

I stuck to my guns though. While there is a slim chance of the above happening, as I told him, I would be more concerned about hurting the author's feelings than whether or not I got a ding for a job. Some of this is due to the fact that I'm not in a position to just up and move for any kind of job, now or in the near future. Even with the Dr. now, I pretty much have to stay in my own backyard. However, as a writer myself, who has had a few bad reviews on books, I have to admit...it does hurt...it does sting.

So, now to my real point. Okay, I send this review off, and wouldn't you know it, I see on Amazon.com that someone has reviewed my last jewelry book....and given it two freaking stars! Part of me wonders if this person (who doesn't post with a real name) was an artist whose work was not accepted for the book (which includes a total of 26 artists) and was thus "getting back" at me. Even then, the stain is there, and it stings, and I'm feeling like I must be getting some payback already before my review has even hit the screen.