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.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Apropos of nothing

Needing to kill 25 minutes before heading up to the theater where my wife works, and I don't feel like diving into something work-related for that amount of time. Some short notes.

> The Feedjit gadget always fascinates. A little traffic coming to this blog lately from someone who searched the text of a fortune cookie I received some weeks back. My blog posting ended up with an update about how the two fortune cookies opened came true, and in relation to each other. Now a link to that blog posting is on someone's Facebook page, and a few people have come here following that link. Since I'm not on Facebook, I have no idea whose page this is on or why. Maybe someone has a Facebook page devoted to different fortune cookie messages? I think of the old Alan King bit/book title, Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery! which is what his father used to say whenever he opened a fortune cookie. I suspect that was often. As the old joke goes,

The Jewish calendar is now year 5771. The Chinese calendar is year 4708. So what did Jews do for 1063 years without Chinese food?

> Working lately for a number of individual authors, and hoping the word continues to spread, for a number of reasons. One of the authors is part of a small publishing group that appears to handle the work of only a handful of authors, but has its own periodical as well. Very interesting. Naturally, I hope that the present author is enamored enough of my work to disseminate my name among her fellow writers.

> I've lured a dear longtime friend into the compulsion that is Haiku Monday. Welcome, Fleur.

> My older son is in London today (not center city) while the royal nuptials are taking place. I simply consider it a good development that the lad has been out of the United States since January 5 and I've had no calls from embassies or COINTELPRO, and that (knock on wood) he still has his passport. The future queen is a fabulous babe, and the future king looks well on his way to having less hair than I do.

> I've been added to the list of a rather well-known university press as a proofreader. No work just yet, but hopefully some will come soon, at which time I'll add the press to the ever-fluctuating client list. Which press? Well, Prince William -- keeping on the royals theme -- was just made Duke of Cambridge. Well, it ain't that one, but the other one.

> Other son will be matriculating at University of Virginia this fall; parents and offspring are most pleased, although dealing with a university that size is already proving a new experience. The incoming freshman class at UVA is bigger than his brother's college and both their high schools combined.

> Getting an index on Jewish architecture after Auschwitz. 440-page book, probably oversized. I think they've left me about 10 pages for the index. All I can hope for is plenty of pages with pictures.

> Finishing up some work over the next few days for my Kuwaiti professor pal. I'm proofreading a book I'd copyedited a couple of months ago, which doesn't happen often. As I told my wife yesterday, every once in a while I'll forget that and think to myself while proofing the pages, Gee, I like the way this copyeditor worked. I'd have done it the same way. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

9 comments:

moi said...

Thanks. This post immediately sent "All I Wanna Do" bouncing around in my head and now I'm not going to get it to leave.

czar said...

Moi: See, that's what you get for actually knowing something more than the chorus. That's all I ever remember from this song, so I had to look up the lyrics to know what you were talking about.

Fleurdeleo said...

Yes, you lured me, Csar! And I am glad you did. Speaking of Auschwitz, did you happen to catch the odd and awkward PBS documentary "Our Holocaust Vacation"? And you thought family car trips to the Grand Canyon spelled trouble...

czar said...

Fleur: I only watch what the czarina shows me, and that's not made the list. But I will have to remember that wonderful conversation starter, "Speaking of Auschwitz . . ."

Fleurdeleo said...

Well, mention it to the Csarina--if you can tear her away from her long lost true love Shelby Foote. PS, I am forced to contradict you about Tipper. Go back to my site for a new pic. (The Crucible comment was DEAD ON!)

Fleurdeleo said...

Csar, are you proud of me???

czar said...

Fleur: Well, of course. The only question is what took you (or the rest of us) so long.

Fleurdeleo said...

Well, the competition is "fie-rce." (Picture this being pronounced a la Shelby Foote.)

czar said...

Good in theory, except I wouldn't know Shelby Foote if he were standing next to me with a tent sign and a megaphone. No idea what he looks or sounds like.