Work VS Entertainment - Work Wins Again

I was so tired last night that I was tempted to watch a movie, but I got home a little earlier than usual, and after resting for a bit, I decided to bite the bullet and work on my book some more. I am very glad that I did. I am now only twenty-three pages away from completing this edit round, and I am very, very happy with the manuscript at this point. I'll finish this review tonight, and print the revised draft for another read-through going into this weekend. I've been working on editing the book non-stop now since March, and I am so tired I am about to fall down, but I love what I have accomplished. I am excited about meeting people at the Arthurian conference and telling them about it, and after a brief rest, I will start up again on my editing process for Parsifal. I was working on it from January through March when I realized I needed to go back to The Flower of Knighthood, and I want to get back to the Holy Grail book. I've also been percolating on the next book, the third one in the series, The Engagement of Sir Gawain, and an unrelated play I've been working on for a long time that is also written in poetry, and some other project ideas, mostly connected to my music. I have not been doing much magazine writing lately because I've been so focused on my books, but I need to get back to that, too. It fills another need I have in my creative life, and I also get to meet interesting people when I do magazine articles. I have been spending some time recently working to find good places for promoting my books, by joining Arthurian discussion boards and researching conferences and conventions. I plan to take at least one more media class in the fall at UCLA to gain some more skills, and after the conference is over, I am going to start seriously saving money to upgrade to a new laptop so I can speed up my progress on all of my projects. I've gotten a lot done the first half of 2008, and have big plans for the second half, too.

Knighthood is Flowering

I am more than two-thirds through the latest edit round of The Flower of Knighthood. I've made a couple of small word changes that really improved the manuscript. I wasn't even looking to do so, they just came to me as I was reading it. It really pays to be so diligent. You never know what you will find that you can make work better. I am hoping to finish this current once-over by this weekend. I gave my web designer friend the deadline that I want this up as a download by the end of this month at the latest, so we can iron out any problems before I go to France. In order for that to happen, I need to finish this round fast and do at least one more in order to check the changes I just made. Do you think I can do it? I think I can!

The Goblet of Fire is the Holy Grail

No wonder I like Harry Potter so much:

http://www.harrypotterforseekers.com/alchemy/alchemy.php

This is awesome. I love alchemical studies, and my second book, Parsifal, is highly alchemical. I am finding out that elements I put into it unconsciously are turning out to be deeply mystical alchemical symbolism. I knew there was a lot of deliberate alchemical symbolism in the Potter books, but I bet some of J.K. Rowling's stuff is also unconscious. The alchemy is an inherent process in the archetypal psyche that is activated by the process of seeking God and one's spiritual destiny. Developing one's creativity is a highly effective means of activating it.

I especially like this quote from the website linked above:

If you read Harry Potter with this symbolism in mind, the story will transform from an exciting battle between good and evil to a method of absolute liberation from death, suffering and evil.

Righteous.

Validation

Five people now list me as one of their favorite shops on Etsy! I posted some more items last night, and plan to put more up tonight. I also got almost halfway through The Flower of Knighthood over the weekend. I will work on it tonight, too.

Update on Crafts, Book, and Conference

I spent some time today listing more items in my little Etsy store, and discovered that three people from the Etsy community have listed me as a favorite shop! That made me feel good. I haven't even really gotten going yet and people are noticing me already. I'm going to spend a lot more time tomorrow working on it, and working on the book edits. I started again Thursday evening with another re-read of The Flower of Knighthood. I also looked over my trip preparation notes for the French conference I will be attending next month, and worked out my next steps and budgeting timeline. I figured out exactly how much I need to spend on the train from Paris up to Rennes ($152 round trip) and am going to pay for that and the balance on my lodgings this month. Then all I will need is money for the trip for food, taxis and activities. Everything else will already be completely paid for so I don't have to worry about it.

Book Review

All right, I finished another edit of The Flower of Knighthood this morning, one day ahead of schedule. I'll make the changes to the manuscript this afternoon and start reading it again for what I hope is the last time. I think I'll take the evening off first, though.

Booking

I am about three quarters done with this Flower of Knighthood edit readthrough, and I am really happy with the results. I worked on it last night instead of posting more stuff on my Etsy store online. I just didn't have it in me to tackle any more of that yet (it's a surprisingly involved process to post things, consisting of five separate steps including writing a detailed product description - I plan to space that project out over the next few weeks so it does not become too tedious), and I wanted to work on the book. This evening will be devoted to it as well, and I plan to be finished with this pass by the weekend if not before. It's going quite fast, so it may in fact be done earlier. My friend is researching the best way to post the download version, and I am going to do some web updates to www.fleurdamour.us this weekend to create a separate page for the books. I need to update the site anyway, I have not touched it at all in quite a while and it needs some attention. I am going to make some pages to promote the book on social networking sites, too. I was just reading a gloom and doom article about the book publishing industry, so maybe it is best in the long run to do the self-publishing route. I see my books as only one part of my creative output, and maybe it's better for me to retain control across the board of all of it and promote it as a whole.