Office Observations

So the IT director just came into our office and asked how to spell "finagle" while also managing to mispronounce it. Jordan helped him out, but Laura just asked, "Doesn't he know how to use the internet?"

I have found on multiple occasions that Grammar Girl is very helpful with her quick and dirty tips. Of course, I already know the rules that she is teaching, but sometimes I like to look them up just to reassure myself, because I live in a world that is plagued by incorrect grammar, and we all know that if the majority of people are doing it, then it must be right. Today I looked up the difference between bad and badly. The way I've always remembered it is that badly is an adverb (obviously, because it has an -ly), and adverbs, as their names denote, modify verbs. Therefore, in what way am I feeling? I feel badly. But bad is an adjective that defines a noun, in this case, I. So if we want to know how I feel, we would have to make it an adjective. But I find that her transitive and intransitive section is even more enlightening. Read and enjoy.

Non-fiction works at Tate

You know it's going to be a bad day when you have to read this:
The practice of students dropping out and re-enrolling in high school or General Educational Development (GED) programs has recently gained the interest of researchers, public officials, and school administrators due to the low academic achievement of high school students across the nation (Berliner, 1).

Then you force yourself to get through 7,000 words of this:
Zechariah’s second and third visions are closely tied together. In them, God is still dealing with the Gentile nations. He is still “sore displeased” with them because they have “helped forward (increase) the affliction” of his people. Zechariah sees the four empires (“four horns”) which have increased the affliction; and then he sees the “four carpenters,” which represent God’s power (and method) of destroying these four empires. The Lord says that the carpenters have “come to fray them, to cast out the horns [power] of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn [power] over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Zech. 1:21).

Only to find that what you've been waiting to "reward" yourself with later is this:
The book explores how a company can successfully alter its strategic policies and organizational methods in response to or anticipation of environmental changes without provoking instability or increasing the undue stress experienced by people.

**Copyright 2010 Tate Publishing and/or their authors.**

Lessons from the office

Today I learned:
Patrick is a big fan of strapless bras.
James turns 30 today.
The movie Friday the Thirteen was released the day James was born.
The Knights Templar are the reason why Friday the Thirteenth is unlucky.
"Anybody" can pull off a dramatic reading of Tantacles of Destruction.
My earrings make great wind whistlers.

It's Wednesday. What else is new?

Today I learned that:
Replace All isn't caps sensitive. Which sucks for me because now I can't just find and replace all Heavens with heavens and all CHAPTERs with Chapters. I have to find next for each one and change it myself. Oh well, it keeps me busy.
The office's most exciting revelation today? That CMOS changed the color scheme of their website in honor of their 16th edition release. Kalyn was ooh-ing and ahh-ing for minutes on end.

A day in the life of.....a copyeditor :)

Alarm goes off at 6:30. I think it's part of my dream, but then finally startle myself awake by yelling, "Sean, it's time to get up!"
He agrees, then rolls over and hits the snooze.
Two snoozes later, Sean gets up and gets ready for his new job. I remind him his lunch is in the fridge; he goes to work.
I let Bella in from her morning romp in the yard and play on facebook. Then I get up, get dressed, and stare at the fridge for something to eat. I sit around the house looking for something to do until Mara picks me up at a quarter to eight.
Today, Thomas picks me up. Sun is shining, temperature is already in the eighties.
Get to work a little early, grab my water bottle from my cubby and fill it from the water cooler in the cafe. Mmmmm, coffee smells good. Sit across from Brittany, plug in my computer, get to work. The two Laurens come in a bit later; one is my boss and is in the adjoining office a few feet away, the other Lauren sits next to me and also gets to work.
At ten, every single employee from Tate trickles into our office (because it is the biggest) and we have to shove our table back to make room for them. It's time for the monthly meeting. yay. Meeting stuff happens, Ryan inspires us, and we have awards and announcements and all that jazz. Then we get to move our table back and try to kill time for an hour before lunch.
Lauren asks Brittany (because Brittany's been here the longest) about a grammar question and we talk about our manuscripts and discover mistakes we've been making (surprise, we going to have to go back and fix our work! Even grammar nazis aren't perfect).
Lunch rolls around, we all scatter.
Eat, play on our computers, talk, do some work, paychecks are handed out, we talk while we work.
Boss Lauren, per my request a couple days ago, has gone over my previous manuscripts. Oops, I made some mistakes. But it's okay, it's only my first week so it's good we've caught these early on! I go back and fix them and then do PPCs for Kalyn. I used to do PPCs as an intern, but I still have the email and have been keeping up with it, and probably will until a new intern turns up. I know Kalyn is too busy for it and plus I already have a good system worked out for it.
"Bye, have a good weekend," resounds around the office as people start to leave. There's only about five or six people left in the office by four because Ryan said we could go home an hour early today and most editors have flex hours and get off at four anyway. I'm staying because Sean can't get me until five, and Brittany and Lauren are trying to get in a couple extra hours. So we sit around and work a little bit until five and Sean is here to pick me up.
Sean shows me his new security cards and we go home.
Peek in the freezer and find some pork steaks.
Dinner is cooked, eaten, and leftovers put away by 6:30. Reading, playing on the computer, and catching up with each other's days. If this were a weekday, I would be making Sean's lunch and maybe ironing a pair of slacks for him. Instead, we're waiting for Caleb to arrive from Tulsa.
And that is what I did today!

Dream On (The Neil Patrick Harris/Matthew Morrison version, of course)

So now that I have a new job as a copyeditor at Tate Publishing (!!!!) I'll be sitting at a desk reading books for 27 hours a week. This means a lot of time that I can listen to music.

Here's what I've been listening to recently:
Anberlin
Owl City
3 Doors Down
Glee Soundtrack
Keane

As much as I like all these bands and have no intention of stopping listening to them anytime soon, I'm ready to throw something new into the mix. Would anybody like to suggest some new bands and/or get me an iTunes card? I'm open to suggestions!

Words for the day

Lauren: "Would you like the job?"
Me: "Yes, please."
Lauren: "Okay, it's yours."

books books books

Why has no one told me about goodreads before? I know it's just another social networking site, and there's probably a lot of them out there for just books, but it's so exciting! The girls at Tate were playing on it this morning so I decided to check it out. Apparently you can also win free books there.
Some other thoughts from Tate:
Why are there twenty books of matches in the bathroom? There are no candles or anything else flammable. Seven weeks and this still confounds me.
Shadow editing with James this week. I have grown in confidence as I have read over some of Kalyn's edits so I hope I'm doing well.
I've become distracted. I don't know what else I was going to say. So back to work!

How may I help you?

Trying something new:
put on receptionist duty in the Editing department at Tate. So far have answered the phone three times, and once it was actually for me! Don't misunderstand that exclamation point, that was more terror than excitement. Plus neither of my bosses are in the office today so I am not getting my questions answered promptly enough! Must needs go now and get back to work.

Sol Stein, who's he?

The essence of dramatic conflict lies in the clash of wants. (Sol Stein)

There's so much that I could write about today. The above quote is from "Stein on Writing," a book I picked up during lunch today at Tate. Nothing that he said seemed very revolutionary, and really nothing that I read was any that I didn't already know. But somehow, as I turned the pages, I found thoughts sparking within my head about my novel that had never really appeared there. Mostly they were thoughts that made me realize just how much work I have left on Into the Flames. I've really merely scratched the surface of Rahab's character and I can't believe how quickly I've moved through the plot without showing everything that needs to be said. Needless to say, I've opened Scrivener and started re-organizing the whole plot and each character so that I make sure that no point in the story is left behind. For the past fifteen years (about how long I've been scribbling) I've given little thought to the structure of my novels, letting the characters carry me into and through the plot (or lack of plot). Now I see that if I don't write out exactly where I want each scene to go, Rahab won't let me write exactly her thought process and how she ended up to be the person she is at the end of the book.
Stein writes that everybody wants something, and it is the protagonists' desires that propel the story forward. The protagonist has to want something badly enough to fight for it. This afternoon I asked myself, "What does Rahab want?" She wants to be normal, she wants to be special, she wants to understand Bracken, she wants to be understood. Not only is Rahab clashing with herself and her desires, but her parents, Jean and Hawkins, Bracken, and, ultimately, James. All these people, in turn, have their own desires that they are striving to meet. The simple statement that I quoted above brought to light all the different subplots I have unconsciously woven throughout my novel and the different conflicting desires that have to be resolved before my story can end.
I can't wait to get started!

Tate: Editing Division

Finally! I have been taken "across the street!"

I'm not really sure why I put that in quotes, since it literally is across the street. I'm speaking, of course, about the room full of copy and conceptual editors where I will be working at Tate from now on. I know that my boss, Curtis was much too busy to find things for me to do, and I was getting tired of listening to marketers talking on the phone to book distributors and authors all day. Curtis finally brought me over to the Dark Side, where I will be answering to Lauren and Kalyn,who have more than enough work for me to do.
The editing room is full of desk shoved up against each other and girls (and a couple guys) hunched over laptops reading manuscripts. So far I have met three other girls who recently started here and were previously interns. Not sure if that means there is hope for me, or if it means that they are now fully restaffed and don't need me. I guess we'll see; either way, it's a pleasure to be working here, while Sonic becomes more and more stressful each day.

Also, this office abuts the music department, so we have been assaulted (no, NOT a-salted) with deep bass boomings on and off this morning. I don't mind it at all. This office seems much more vibrant and exciting than the main office. And it's not so cold here, either.

[insert yet to be renamed Christian gardening book title here]

Today I learned that:
Gardening books always have boring titles, and most of the time they're ridiculously long, too.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found that my supervisor called me to his office not to tell me what I did wrong or right (which would have been nice) but to ask me my opinion on how to "fix" an author's manuscript. Then he sent me off with the task to think of a better title to the manuscript. In case you were worried, earlier today he did critique my work, telling me what he thought I did well and an area where I could improve. Yay! I must say that I like my boss pretty well, except that when he's talking to me half the time I think he's mumbling to himself. But I guess I can't be too upset since I do the same (Sean can attest to that).

First Day at Tate

What I learned at Tate Publishing today:
Well, I spend most of my day doing conceptual editing for a book titled "Gardening Enhances my Faith." I learned a lot about composting, planting potatoes, and how the government is trying to take over all farming in the US so that...well, I'm not sure exactly why, but apparently they're perpetuating lies that organic farming is evil so that all farming and gardening will be under their control! [insert evil laugh here]
So here's hoping things get a little more interesting in the coming weeks.
Oh, and they stuck me in a room with a teeny tiny little desk and a bunch of empty file boxes. All alone. One lady stopped by and said to watch out, if the boxes started talking to me I was in trouble.

In other news, I'm babysitting Penny Noel and Nadia tonight. It's crazy what these kids come up with. Penny was pretending to have stuffed animals be her children, so I asked her why her stuffed bear didn't look like her, since the bear was supposed to be her baby, and she said, "I'm just a Penny, but I'm the guy who takes care of the bears." Seriously, it sounds like something Sean says in his sleep. Speaking of which, last night when I bumped Sean he rolled over and said, "You know, Guy Fawkes." And I said, "What about Guy Fawkes?" And he said, "That Guy Fawkes is my favorite."
Also, in the bath tub, Penny and Nadia were pretending that their water gun fish had a snotty nose like I did. Nadia filled him full of water and said, "Bless me!" when she squirted it out. Then Penny would say, "Wow! That's a lot of snot!" and they would both scream laughter and do it again.