Too many short nights. 'Way too many long days. I'm currently babysitting the printer as it struggles with the second edition of Phoebe's Quilt, which I plan to take to Office Max tomorrow later today to have covered and bound. Then I'll pack it off to my sister-in-law so she'll have a few copies when she shows the real thing at the Haddam Neck Congregational Church's Annual Quilt Show this coming Saturday. Hopefully that will generate interest among local folks who might be able to shed light on Haddam 160 years ago and the families I've come to know through this Friendship Quilt.
The printer is silent. Four copies printed. I won't bore you with why it took so long to get four measly copies done, but it almost makes Office Max's charge of 50 cents per (color) copy look reasonable. Almost. Anyway, they're done. Tomorrow I'll change out the exhausted black ink cartridge and hope the (already replaced once) color lasts through one more printing.
Then bind ... ship ... and I'll be FREE! Um, not exactly. There's still some work to do on the pdf version, and of course more research I want to do—eventually. But I'm looking forward to scaling back, a lot, and tackling all the stuff that's been ignored for the last several weeks, including the very lovely Florida spring days that will soon pass into not-so-lovely summer.
Anyway, that's why you haven't heard much from me lately.
I was wondering what the big push was for. The quilt event was mentioned in the Courant this morning.
I predict Phoebe's Quilt will be the hit of the show!
For those of you who are wondering, I haven't given up on the idea of getting the book professionally printed. There are many options available these days, and it would look ever so much nicer that way. But I'm not there yet. There's more information I'd really like to find, first, and I have a lot of playing with format to do before being willing to shell out that kind of money.
Working without a net, as Eric would say—that is, self-publishing without benefit of an editor—is tough. I can't get the distance I need from the work—hopefully putting this next edition "out there" will generate new ideas, information, and corrections. At the least, it should enhance the quilt exhibit.
I'll let you know when the pdf version is available.
Just because you self-publish doesn't mean you can't have an editor. You could hire Steph, for example.
