A Librarian's Life

reading [email], writing, vacations, & inspiration…

Char — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:39:09 +0000

Remember this day. Well not today, but Saturday, January 21, 2012. I began the revisions on my novel, willing myself to complete them in 3 months. Oh my…what have I gotten myself in to?

A lot of my colleagues just returned from ALA Midwinter in Dallas. Conference rooms, meetings, and networking! Oh my!

I went to Savannah. For a vacation. : )

It was the first week of classes, so the emails and new meetings appointments started to fly. This was one trip where I didn’t attempt to check email regularly, so I spent the first couple of days back at work wading through and prioritizing hundreds of them.

I suppose one must suffer through this task after enjoying fried green tomatoes and chicken pot pie from Lady & Sons, and shrimp from Uncle Bubba’s.

And I can’t forget my friend’s wonderful cooking and Southern hospitality!

Nothing like walking on a beach in the middle of January and seeing the folks back home reporting temperatures well below freezing and snow…

Nothing like sleeping in late and not having to leave the house ’til lunchtime.

On that note, my stomach is starting to growl. It’s writers group night, which I almost always begin by heading out for supper, finding a WIFI spot, and working on my writing. Tonight, I am hoping to share the revisions I’ve made to the opening of my novel. It’s only about 500 words, but it’s drastically different than my first draft. Can’t wait to get their critiques!

Oh…inspiration…check out the post on my fiction blog: http://charlenenewcomb.com

strawberry nachos…

Char — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:07:31 +0000

Sounds intriguing…

Via Research Buzz, the California Strawberry Commission now has a recipes section. Oh my!

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Dried Strawberry Chipotle Chutney

Strawberry and Cucumber Salad - vinagrette with cumin, paprika, mint & more – yummie!

not one of their recipes, just my mid-morning snack

first work day of 2012…

Char — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:42:30 +0000

The spring semester doesn’t start for 2 more weeks so it’s still pretty quiet here in the library. I managed to complete my self-evaluation but I haven’t submitted it yet. I’ll give it one more read before the end of the week and then ship it off to my boss.

I spent a good bit of the day cleaning up some Access query documentation and running a few sample reports. Tomorrow I’ll work on CrossRef DOIs which I never managed to get to last Friday.

Here’s one to enjoy by way of Research Buzz:

go to maps.google.com

click on Get Directions & the Walking icon

from: the shire

to: Mordor

Check the cautionary note & enjoy

last working day of the year…

Char — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:47:14 +0000

All’s quiet. Two office mates on vacation today; the other working away quietly.

Remember that report I said I’d regret putting off until the new year? Well, I decided not to procrastinate. It’s finished and emailed off to the big boss.

Next on the list:

work on the self evaluation, always such a joy. NOT.
back to CrossRef and DOIs
investigate MOAs used by other open access publishers
wish everyone a Happy New Year!

the fun we had…

Char — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:41:41 +0000

Pictures by Jenny. Montage by me. (And I had nothing…absolutely nothing…to do with including Luke & Yoda in the photos, except for the pic of xmas gifts.)

semester breaks…

Char — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:30:13 +0000

Wouldn’t you think that things get quiet at an academic library during the holidays? Ha! Not so. I guess the best part is that we have fewer meetings. I’ve often been able to organize my desk, clean out old files (including on the hard drive), finish up a project or two, clean up the Inbox, and complete my self evaluation. I used to spend some of that time writing staff evaluations. It’s nice to have a break from that particular responsibility these days.

First day post-exams: I’d taken that Monday off. Did not even look at email over the long weekend until I got to the office Tuesday morning. Three different emails requesting new reports appeared. After months of very few requests other than the regularly scheduled monthly reports I run, there were three! YAY! I’d almost forgotten how to use Access – NOT!

One of the reports isn’t due until mid-January, so I will procrastinate and work on it after the holidays. (This is probably a very bad idea. It will come back to haunt me.) One report was for Circ staff to aid in a clean-up project during the semester break; the other from Content Development staff requesting a list of titles with expenditures for FY11 & FY12 (to date) for one specific department. One thing I’ve learned is to consult with the staff requesting reports before I embark on my own. Inevitably, they need either more or less information than I might provide. Always a good idea to clarify exactly what is the goal of the report. (Yes, the ‘reference interview’ is usually a must!) Both reports were out within 24 hours to grateful and happy recipients. Gotta love that feeling!

By mid week another request arrived – see, everyone has time to work on projects that have been bugging them for months and they’ve been too busy to request! And, I had one new issue crop up with New Prairie Press (NPP). I am anticipating a flood there as the journal editors, who have been busy with classes during the fall, now have a moment to push articles through the review and publishing process. Inevitably they discover that something is broken or they’ve forgotten a piece of the process.

Next time at this year, as well as in May as the spring semester ends, I think I’d better anticipate spending extra time with NPP and requests. I’ll have to plan better to get my own downtime projects taken care of.

Luke vs. the children…

Char — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:07:14 +0000

Conversation between sons #1 and #2 as they look at the china cabinet:

“How many more pictures do you think Mom has of Luke Skywalker than of us in this house?”

it got quiet around here…

Char — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:30:05 +0000

I’ve been sidetracked the last few weeks as I finished up the final edits on my novel and began thinking about web domains, the holidays, trips, weddings, copyediting, and work. My brain–and life-is going in a hundred different directions. All of them good, mind you. But I feel much less organized than in the ‘old’ days. Holiday decorations and Christmas cards would have been out Thanksgiving weekend back then. I just emailed my Christmas letter on Sunday. Stamps are purchased and the cards addressed to the dozen or so folks who will not admit that they have email addresses. I discovered that my printer is out of ink, hence no printing yet. Will. Do. Today.

The big news I want to share is the decision to set up my fiction website. I’ve thought long and hard about it, about whether to use this blog as that home. But, did you realize that until very recently, my name wasn’t even associated with this blog? Sure, you could figure out who I was if you really wanted to, if you weren’t already a friend or family member who followed my occasional posts here. But no where on the blog until a month or two ago did I mention my name. There was no list of the stories I wrote, just mentions now and then about the novel I’ve been writing for almost 3 years. A couple of months ago I finally decided to add the bibliography, My Fiction. But now that I’ve set up a separate site, that page is a link to my fiction home. And my name(s) are now on the About Char page! (Yes, names.)

Join me at charlenenewcomb.com for my writing adventures. I’ll have posts here occasionally reminding you I’m also over there if you want to bear with me through the next steps toward publication of my novel. I’ll continue to post on this site about work and other news. I have to use my limited free time judiciously and, to be honest, one of the places I want to spend most of that time is in the realms of fiction. In this day and age, that includes a lot of networking with other writers through social media and bringing a personality to readers beyond that blurb on the back cover of a book.

on the revision process…

Char — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:16:49 +0000

Just thinking…stewing…not touching chapter 1 yet…

This whole revision process is scary in a way. Can I make those earliest chapters real page-turners like chapter 25, the climax that I took for critique at writers group a couple of weeks back? (The words ‘this scene will really knock people over’ sound so sweet. Talk about ego boosting!) :)

This wonderful group of people has given me their thoughts on plot, characters, and my writing itself for the last three years. Will I disappoint them when I bring the revisions back to group? Or will I hit the mark? I know I’m supposed to worry about pleasing myself, but they’ve invested time in this story, too. Is a writer like a kid? I want writers group to be proud to see I followed (some of) their advice.

The ultimate goal is to convince readers to invest their time in my book. I expect the revisions to go much more quickly than the 1st draft writing. Maybe 3 months. Sound reasonable? A couple of people are interested in being Beta testers: one an avid reader, the other another writer. They will be a good test on that 2nd draft. Then more revisions will come followed by copy editing, proofreading, and formatting.

But why is so hard to open yourself to other readers? Evil thoughts go through my mind: I want people to like what I’ve written, but the brain keeps saying they’ll think it’s a bunch of crap. It won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea. (Sorry Alex fans – this isn’t a Star Wars story.) I’m realistic, okay? I agree with novelist Jody Hedlund that ”When we birth our stories, no one else will have the same depth of love for our creation that we do”.

Bottom line: what would be the point of writing if you don’t share it?

chapter 1 is calling my name…

Char — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:30:53 +0000

…but I must resist! Just for a few more weeks. Let it stew, simmer. Wait until writers group hears the final 3 chapters. Their critiques might give me something else to consider before I trek down revision road.

I’ve probably lost a bit of sleep thinking about the revisions yet to come. There will be a number of them–mostly minor, story tightening elements, a bit more foreshadowing; and one semi-major. That one deals with a character who ends up taking a much larger role that I’d originally planned, so the first few chapters need to reflect that.

Then there’s the biggie: I am seriously considering removing one character entirely, folding parts of her storyline into the other four sisters in the book. Have I mentioned the main theme of my novel is the father-son relationship? Five sisters, father, son, not to mention friends, spouses. (Can you see where I’m going with this?) I’m sure I have broken a rule about having too many characters.

Confused looks from my writers group tells the story. Of course, I must remember they are at a disadvantage. They aren’t reading my novel cover-to-cover over the course of a week or two. When you hear chapters of a novel spread out over almost 3 years (agh!), it is hard to keep track. If the characters are well-defined this shouldn’t make a difference. So, should I drop dear sister Jo? If I think that wouldn’t be hard to manage, what does that tell me? Decisions, decisions.