And the Book is...

Done! Well, it's been written once anyway. Now let the rewrites begin! Oh yes, and a caveat, all but the introduction is written. I am savoring and saving the introduction until I see what the book turns out to be. It's hard to introduce something that isn't finished.

Coffee in the Barcelona skyline mug, "Let Me Leave" by Marc Broussard on iTunes, (ready?) 34,939 (original) words written. There have been subsequent edits and I didn't count them. Now if you do the math at 400-500 words per page this is a really tiny book! (87 pages is just not much) But remember, it's supposed to be eye candy, not a text book. I am actually over in page count right now and I am expecting my editor to come down hard today. I have planned 60 photos from other artists in the gallery, there are another 87 demo and how-to photos, 20 full-page beauty shots, 6 illustrations and 6 template pages. Oh yes, and an index, front matter, yah de yah.

So why, if the book is DONE (can I say it again? revel just a little in a blissful moment of DONENESS?) did I get up this morning at 6:30 am? What can I say, I am ruled by the sun. The clock springs back, I spring up. What did I do? Well, I harassed an online vendor about the decided lack of new coffee maker at our residence. I pinged iTunes about a double-charge for the Marc Broussard album I gifted to my in-laws. I began this post! Then I got J up and off to school (not tough, it's pajama day for Halloween and I french-braided her hair last night so all I had to do was supervise ablutions, feed her, see her shod and shivvy her out the door).

Now it's 8:20 and it's time to be a glass artist again. Going to get the slump load in early this morning and start on the illustrations, templates, and photographs for the line editor (she wants to see pics of all the projects before she edits the text... makes sense to me). I also need to contact the publisher and find out if they really want a hard copy of the book sent to them, and if so, what they want in it as we are already editing and everything is fluid..

Got email from Bullseye yesterday. They are soliciting photos of architectural installations for their new catalog coming out in March 2007. I have the perfect project, but I don't have any good photos of it and I don't have time to drive up to Marshall NC to get them. A couple of years ago I did 32 glass bricks for an old building renovation. They are 2-1/2 X 2-1/2 X 6 and solid glass. They go longways through the building so the light from outside comes through them on the inside. You can see the light and the bright colors from the picture, but you don't get that they jut into the room a bit on the inside and provide three-dimensional interest too. I think it would be a great photo for the catalog, but I don't really have a whole day to spend driving up to get the photo. Maybe I can hire a photographer to take the pics for me and send them to me... I need to pursue this possibility. Yet another iron in the fire for 2007!

Boxes. I am still obsessed with boxes. Especially now that I got the new lap grinder diamond discs from Centre de Verre and tried them out yesterday. Hoo boy. I'd forgotten what a new disc feels like. I got 60, 100 and 180 grit so I am really ready to grind. And I figured last night that I *might* be able to do 32 boxes in one firing in the big kiln. If I can do 32 at a time it makes them more saleable as I can more easily justify tying up the kiln for 32 for three days than I can for 1 or 3 or even 8. However I am going to be smart and I'm not going to do 32 the first time. If they all failed it would be a disaster. But I am going to do 8. Eight boxes the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I will fuse the glass for them. Oh d*mn. I hope I have enough fiber paper for them. I still haven't ordered from Hoy's. *sigh* today. More administrivia, less glass.

Now more glass, less writing. To the Kiln and Beyond!