Will the Editing Never Cease?

I am re-re-editing my first book. Even one of my roommates got exasperated with me when I told her I was at it again, wondering if I would ever finish it, but I got a fresh burst of creativity and found a lot of places where I could make it stronger. It's been long enough now since I looked at it that I lost some of my attachment to turns of phrase that can upon reflection be improved. I am readying it for e-publication, and I figured it's been this long, why not make a last push and make it as perfect as I possibly can? I'll know when I am done. Again, I learned so much writing the second one that I have found new avenues of self-expression that I can bring to prior work. It just seems slightly underdeveloped to me now, and I know how to fix that. What's a few more months in the course of a lifetime?

Back in the Saddle

My new hard drive seems to be working fine, knock on wood. I was relieved enough to go out and buy backup drives for the Mac and for my little cheapy PC netbook and laptops. I am now budgeted for May to drop some cash on Logic Pro for the Mac so I can get my music composition off the ground again. It's agonizingly slow to get all of the stuff I need for my projects, but it's an investment that is worth it.

Mid-City Press

I just sent an inquiry to a new community newspaper that is starting in my neighborhood. The editor and founder spoke at the local neighborhood council meeting last week and said she is looking for writers. I told her about my fine art and entertainment background and offered to write about local arts organizations and cultural institutions. I live in an artists' comunity in Mid-City, which is located roughly between between Mid-Wilshire and the Miracle Mile on the west and Koreatown on the east, and is bordered by the 10 freeway on the south and Pico Blvd. on the north. There are some very interesting things going on in the area, from St. Elmo's Village, a longstanding artspace for mainly African American work, to Mid City Arts, a graffiti and urban art collective. There is also the Eco-Logical Art Gallery, just outside of the official Mid-City map, but right down the street from me. One of our neighbors shows his work there and they have some really interesting shows.

Here is the newspaper's website - it looks to be in beta-testing stage still, not finished, but there is some info about the mission and content.

http://www.midcitypress.com/

I definitely approve of their aim to fill some of the vacuum in local coverage left by cuts at the LA Times and other more established media. It's brave to start a newspaper right now, and I hope they make a go of it.

Medieval Studies

I did not make it to the medieval studies conference last week in Arizona. I almost went, but then decided I would rather spend the money on computer things to advance my own projects. There is a Celtic studies conference coming up at the end of the year, at UCLA. I will go to that one - it involves no travel other than driving across town, and it's completely free. I am kind of sorry about missing this recent one - the topic was Man and the Natural World during the Middle Ages, which sounded fascinating, and I would like to visit Scottsdale again (I once went when I was six years old and liked it). I've just only got so much time, money and energy, and I have to allocate all of those resources as I go.

Medieval Europe Lives Again In the American Desert

I am going to try to go to this conference in February:

http://www.acmrs.org/conferences/2010/conferences.html

I had no idea that Arizona was a hotbed of medieval studies. Maybe the dry climate is good for preserving manuscripts? I found out about this conference through the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA. I also want to go to one of their upcoming events, a lecture from a manuscript specialist at the Getty Museum:

19th History of the Book Lecture
“Searching for the Origins of Secular Imagery in Thirteenth-Century France”
Friday, January 29, 2010

The mid-thirteenth century in northern France saw an explosion in the production of books in the vernacular. Most art historians have seen the illumination of romances and histories of the period as a rather thoughtless adaptation of sacred painting models. In this lecture, however, Dr. Elizabeth Morrison (Curator, Department of Manuscripts, J. Paul Getty Museum) explores how artists adapted and ultimately broke away from their religiously inspired beginnings in order to create new formats and compositions more suited to their needs and the needs of a new breed of manuscript- the illuminated secular book.

From here:

http://www.cmrs.ucla.edu/programs/calendar.html#1-29

It's part of this series:

http://www.cmrs.ucla.edu/programs/history_book.html

It's good to live in a large town where you have access to resources like this. I'd be even happier if I lived somewhere like London, but I always try to use every place I live to its fullest.

Rotten to the Core

Well, I thought that my Apple computer was fixed when the Genius tech removed a faulty RAM module before Christmas, but when I took it back into the store to have the replacement installed, it crashed again. They ran a diagnostic, and based on that, they just gave up and replaced my hard drive. The model I had was no longer available, so they gave me a free upgrade to a more powerful drive and sent me home. All of this happened right before the holiday break, so I have not had a chance to fire it up again and re-do all of my settings and make sure it's back on the right track, but I plan to do that this weekend. I have to say, it's really been getting me down. I invested a lot in this computer, and it's a been a huge holdup for me this past year. I hope this solved the problem. The Apple techs were very kind, and have been awesome about addressing my concerns, it's just been awful to have so many things go wrong with what is supposed to be such a good machine.

Book By Its Cover

This year has seemed to be one of delay and disruption. I shared below how my computer has been giving me fits, and so has the economy. There have also been some personal things that have required quite a bit of processing on my part to come to terms with. I've taken some of the slow time to get mundane parts of my life in order, but I feel like the hour is approaching for me to move forward with my creative projects again. My first book is about ready to go as an e-book, but I've had a holdup with the cover artwork, because my artist friend who is doing it for me has recently had a quite serious illness. I am hoping he recovers soon because he's been through a lot the last few years and truly does not deserve this. I think his state has come mostly from stress due to unpleasant stuff he has had to deal with, which amounts to being unfairly punished for being unfairly punished. I can relate to that, it's certainly happened to me in the past, but I feel very sorry for him because he's sick enough to have taken disability time off from his day job and I know he feels physically awful. I am sharing this because I write this blog to share my experiences with developing my writing, and this kind of thing is part of the process. Reality is something that must be dealt with.