wed/20220727

in

"The Final Countdown" has, appropriately, been stuck in my head all morning. Pagination, margins, print tests, snap/to, etc etc etc: my capacity for switching roles, especially without space between – as is the general way it goes in the summer – is at a low ebb (not that I'm very good at it any other time during the year). Snippy/snappy, et al.

And yet here I am – even though I told myself that it probably wasn't a good idea to do these morning things while the PRESS (A) endgame is being run. While I generally don't listen to myself, I'll chalk these up to wanting to write something in the midst of being in the throes of publisher/designer role until the last bit of laser toner is spilled and the first copy fully assembled.

The writer wants to play again but my brain is in the margins – and so it is and so it goes. Going feral not unlikely.

update: short-edge binding and other sanity-saving print options

in

(previously…)

After much wasted ink and new bits of scrap paper, impositions are in place and the first print tests of PRESS (A) 01 are done: it is possible to both assemble and maintain a modicum of sanity. All that remains now is to finish the cover design, a few tweaks on the conclusion, and modifications here for its release and my first longform non-fic piece since 2013 will be ready to go. Rinse, wash, repeat every six months (though the next one will be fiction, probably.)

tue/20220726

in

12 point spacing between lines, margins lined up, on and on it goes: racing towards that first print test; trepidation ensues but relief that I only have to do this for the first time once. 73 pages.

Back screaming slightly less than last night so that's nice, mower back being a brutal beast, especially when you screw up any lumbar support said mower may have once possessed by getting clotheslined and thrown by a swingset – back/ass, meet ground  – but that's a story for another time already told.

I love my new doorstops and will order more doorstops soon. Back to work.

mon/20220725

in

It is still finished and I've thus spent the morning neck deep in the throes of Affinity Publisher formatting/final edits (never underestimate the impact that page turns will have on a text) but the dominant notion this morning is that I already want to go back to bed; tornado warnings at 0100 (north of us, we had some lightning but nothing major) and a strange sensation of being stretched like putty which threw my balance off considerably. Maybe I was replaying what Wanda did to 838-Jim-from-The-Office?

Goal today is to wrap up the formatting so I can see how the formatting actually looks on paper and then decide if I have to scrap it and start over with a larger format. I think I have to finish mowing the in-lawn too.

Hm. That stretching feeling might have basis in reality.

update upon a deadline met

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DONE.

Will start the process of putting it into Affinity Publisher tomorrow – which will, inevitably, bring with it further edits and tightenings (though nothing structurally significant, hopefully). Won’t rush this part of the process just to hit an artificial release date; aiming for next Sunday, but willing to push it into the second week of August or so if it’s not quite there yet.

Regardless, relief.