What It Is (posts below left; rate sheet, client list, other stuff below right)

My name is Bob Land. I am a full-time freelance editor and proofreader, and occasional indexer. This blog is my website.

You'll find my rate sheet and client list here, as well as musings on the life of a freelancer; editing, proofreading, and indexing concerns and issues; my ongoing battles with books and production; and the occasional personal revelation.

Feel free to contact me directly with additional questions: landondemand@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting. Leave me a comment. Come back often.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Land on Demand in the News


Indirectly. Click titles for links.

1


Two books co-won this award for 2012, and Barb’s book nabbed the sole honorable mention. From what I hear (from the author and others), this award is given for books that achieve the pinnacle of Civil War scholarshipand a ton of scholarly Civil War books are printed each year. This is quite the honor, and the book is indeed an amazing piece of research. If I’m remembering right, I think I copyedited, proofed, and indexed this one. Barb’s sister, the czarina, and I all used to work together, and I thank Mary for the reference.

Amazon book description: 

In the years after the Civil War, black and white Union soldiers who survived the horrific struggle joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—the Union army’s largest veterans’ organization. In this thoroughly researched and groundbreaking study, Barbara Gannon chronicles black and white veterans’ efforts to create and sustain the nation’s first interracial organization. 

According to the conventional view, the freedoms and interests of African American veterans were not defended by white Union veterans after the war, despite the shared tradition of sacrifice among both black and white soldiers. In The Won Cause, however, Gannon challenges this scholarship, arguing that although black veterans still suffered under the contemporary racial mores, the GAR honored its black members in many instances and ascribed them a greater equality than previous studies have shown. Using evidence of integrated posts and veterans’ thoughts on their comradeship and the cause, Gannon reveals that white veterans embraced black veterans because their membership in the GAR demonstrated that their wartime suffering created a transcendent bond—comradeshipthat overcame even the most pernicious social barrierrace-based separation. By upholding a more inclusive memory of a war fought for liberty as well as union, the GAR’s “Won Cause” challenged the Lost Cause version of Civil War memory.

2


Great news for a small publisher. BlueBridge Books produces timeless volumes that are meticulously fashioned. I proofread this one. And it’s especially sweet as the Washington Post unnecessarily hammered another excellent BlueBridge book a few years ago.

Amazon book description:

Taking a fresh and original approach to the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth I, this book tells the incredible story of her great passion for gardens, and how the two most powerful men in England during her reign fought a decade-long duel for their queen’s affections by creating lavish gardens for her. It chronicles how, in their quest to woo the queen and outdo each other, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and William Cecil, Baron of Burghley, competed for Elizabeth’s favor by laying out innovative and extravagant pleasure grounds at their palaces for when she came to visit. As she played one off against the other, they created gorgeous palaces and landscapes that amazed the world. The book also describes how others in England and abroad followed Dudley’s and Cecil’s leads and how the queen’s love of plants made gardeners of courtiers, statesmen, and soldiers. This meticulously researched account reveals how Elizabeth’s enthusiasm for horticulture changed the world, encouraging gardeners and designers to create landscapes inspired by the spirit of the Elizabethan garden.

*

A fine week for the LoD client base. Keep up the good work, folks.

5 comments:

Barbara Gannon said...

Yes, Bob did. He is a great copy editor. I would recommend him HIGHLY.

Barb Gannon

Buzz Kill said...

Two in a week and it's only Thursday - very cool. And you get to work with very diverse subject matter. Who's of thought there was a black and white veteran's organization after the Civil War?

czar said...

@Barb: Well, hi, your honoree. Congratulations.

@Buzz: Yeah, the postings are easy when they are cut-and-paste jobs.

These two books did provide some interesting reading. I haven't thought much about it, but I guess I've been reading less theology lately.

And Barb's book is, again, an incredible piece of research. The way she brought this story together largely from smalltown nineteenth-century newspaper accounts (society pages and obituaries) puts a copyeditor's attention to minutiae to shame.

Paisan said...

1Excellent, Czar! As a devotee of "verity" books, I have long admired your indexes, the ones I have seen, of course. Notes, indexes -- if they aren't done well, one begins to question the fundamental research effort, which of course, means the entire work. I do have a question. Have you worked with non-fiction authors who have used relational database software to organize their research? If so, any recommendations?

czar said...

@Paisan: Another editor I know once said that one of my talents was writing an index that makes a really vacuous book look like it has something in it.

On the matter of relational database software to organize research, the word "relational" is tripping me up a little bit. But as a copyeditor, I run into a manuscript every four months or so in which the notes are linked somehow to the references and I can't really do what I need to do . . . and I get the feeling that all the real information is lurking somewhere that I can't get to it. And it makes editing a pain in the ass.

I asked the most recent managing editor what this evil beast was, and she said it was a program called EndNote. I guess it's a database for researchers, and anything that can help keep authors straight on documentation is a good thing. And it links up with Word. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, or what else EndNote might do.

http://www.endnote.com/