I know a lot of people don’t seem to like Mondays, but I used to hang out online with author Julie E. Czerneda, and she’d get really, really excited about Mondays. Mondays were the day she got to go back to work, and she loved, loved, loved her job. I’m not sure I’m quite up for getting that excited — for one thing, I’m operating on a very limited energy budget here. Excitement is exhausting. But I do like Mondays.
Mondays are my “start over” day. I’ve learned to limit quantity goals to one week, and if I don’t make the goal in that week I don’t carry over the deficit. I start fresh each new week with a new chance to get it done right this time. Monday is probably the best day for me to assign myself to do something I really, really want to get done once a week. (Although it wouldn’t have worked last week, because last week I slept all day Monday. I do not know why I slept all day Monday, but assigning myself to do something wouldn’t have worked, because I never woke up enough to even care about what I was or wasn’t getting done.)
After getting past that sleepy Monday, I spent last week working on something that only resembled writing, rather than actual writing. (My husband seemed to think it pretty much counted, anyway, perhaps I should believe him.) I was creating ebooks. I started because I finally got around to acquiring a copy the transcription my daughter made of a Regency Romance Novella I wrote when I was eighteen. And then, of course, I had to go over the manuscript to see if there were transcription errors (possibly an almost-pointless enterprise given my general inability to see typographical errors, but I did catch a few), and having done that I figured I would just transfer the file over to ebook format, why not?
When I opened up the app in which I edit my ebooks, I discovered I was in the middle of making an ebook version of the script for Compelled. (Yes, script. Compelled is a story that I think wants to be a graphic novel… okay, to be honest, I think it wants to be a movie. Getting a graphic novel seems more potentially possible (I have done it before once), so I wrote a script for a graphic novel, and until I get my energy back and actually get to become the workaholic I always wanted to be, or someone volunteers to do the illustrations on spec, or I inherit a lot of money, I’m stuck at that point.) I can no longer remember why I wanted to ebook-ize a graphic novel script. But whatever — the ebook was sitting there half-finished, so I finished it. The ebook I originally meant to be making isn’t quite done yet. But almost!
I also discovered how to solve the mysterious problem of suddenly my new eBooks not having their cover images used for the thumbnails in iBooks anymore. Fixing this involved including a property tag I had never included before – rather than doing something I had recently been forgetting to do. So although all my books now have their cover images showing properly when I view the “by me” shelf, I’m still a bit boggled as to why the older books have them when they don’t have the property tag that is apparently now required. Apple must have changed its protocol for creating thumbnails — but the older thumbnails created using the former protocol still work? Something like that.
Also last week I tatted some more bookmarks. (Mental note to self, must email the friend I sorta offered a bookmark to, and make sure I have her latest address.) I have also been toying with the notion that the obvious solution to the problem of tatted bracelets pulling out of shape and stretching while being worn, is to sew them to a ribbon. This brilliant notion came to me while I was finishing some tatted barrettes, for which I have been using ribbon to cover up the metal bits so that they look better. (I will post a picture as soon as I get them taken and uploaded.)
Having come up with the idea, I will now undoubtedly end up making a few ribbon and tatting bracelets, even though I really have no use whatsoever for them. ::rueful:: I do need to figure out how they will be fastened together, though. Buttons are not so ideal for ribbon (where I would need to actually MAKE the buttonholes) as for tatting (where holes are a naturally occurring feature.)