{"id":375,"date":"2019-03-29T12:43:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2019-03-29T12:47:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:47:39","slug":"and-it-helped-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/29\/and-it-helped-too\/","title":{"rendered":"And it helped, too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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So yesterday was the kind of day where, although things didn’t exactly go badly, there was just a general atmosphere of stress, exacerbated by all the little things crowding the margins of my mind that I haven’t gotten done. I have taxes to do, and a sermon to write, and certain work deadlines have been glaring at me from beneath their heaps in Outlook for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Speaking of exacerbate<\/em>, a friend of mine has a running joke where when someone uses a 25-cent word, she says, “And [simpler word], too.” Once in our hearing, V remarked that something-or-other would exacerbate a certain situation, and C said: “It might even make it worse.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So at close of business yesterday evening, I shut down the lid of my laptop. “Fuck it,” I said, “I’m going to Bo Lings.” I put on my hat, grabbed my file of “Household Lights,” and went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bo Lings is one half of my mental spa ritual. The other half is Barnes & Noble. The order in which I visit them depends on how hungry I am, and whether I plan to purchase reading material to go with my dumplings and egg drop soup. In this case, preliminary editing was the order of the day, so after dinner I walked the two blocks to B&N and mouched about, browsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To my delight, I found that B&N had stocked Erin Bow’s new book. Which is, deplorably, not always the case at my local B&N. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lo these many years ago, I was a failed beta reader for one of Erin’s early projects. Can we talk briefly about beta reading failure? Writers (at least all the writers I know including myself) continually trawl the mental rolodex of their friends for possible readers for their manuscripts: people with certain areas of expertise, or with discriminating taste, or with an editor’s eye for detail, or all of the above. But sometimes it happens that someone agrees to read a manuscript and then…just doesn’t. Or just can’t. And then there’s a shame spiral and they can’t even look at the file, and turn aside from the topic as soon as may be and may take to avoiding the writer on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been on both ends of such a weltering disaster, and producing Ryswyck <\/em>has taught me a lot about this aspect of project management. Well, actually, one of my betas taught me a lot about it: she suggested I give a timeline along with available dates for discussion so that she would be able to work it concretely into her schedule. “Ooh, concept,” said ADHD me. By providing a proposed deadline and other parameters, I as the writer can practice expectations management, and the beta reader can find it easier to cancel if necessary without having to say I don’t want to read your book ever ever ever.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, Erin has obviously found better betas, because she has now produced a string of brilliant books. I read through Chapter Six last night, and look forward to getting back to it. (You know, somewhere among all the abovementioned work<\/em>.) Some writers worthy of the Evil Author badge are ingenious at making you cry by the end of the book, but Erin is special: she made me shed tears AT THE BEGINNING WTF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about a mental spa service upgrade. Couldn’t have found a better way to ameliorate my anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So yesterday was the kind of day where, although things didn’t exactly go badly, there was just a general atmosphere of stress, exacerbated by all the little things crowding the margins of my mind that I haven’t gotten done. I have taxes to do, and a sermon to write, and certain work deadlines have been<\/p>\n

Read More <\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

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