When I was a kid, the UPS man used to bring me packages filled with Christmas gifts. Now he drops off my book proofs instead, but opening the manila envelopes they come in feels a lot like unwrapping presents.

Yesterday the doorbell rang and I dashed for the door as fast as any of my cats do when chasing ghosts around the apartment. (Mice ghosts, I’m sure.) I never know when book proofs are coming, so I’m always slightly surprised when they appear. The last set of proofs was for copyediting, so they simply contained the text of the book, double-spaced and printed like a really long term paper. Once we whipped the text into its most perfect version, it was handed to a book designer. The designer took that text and laid it out all nice and pretty like it will appear in the final published product.

The proofs I received yesterday are of that version which includes the copyright notice, the publisher’s logo, and all those little details that real books have. (I love [...]

• Continue reading "Chocolate & Vicodin: Page proofs"

I’ve flipped the layout of the blog so the content is on the left and the sidebar is on the right. Enough people told me they had usability issues with the old format that I decided it was worth taking the time to change it. If anyone runs into an error with the modified design, report it as a comment on this entry. You might have to refresh your page to see the new images. Try holding down the “Shift” key while clicking the “Refresh” button if you can’t get the new images to load.

I liked trying something different with the old layout, but I suppose it would have worked better if we read right to left. If I ever start a blog written in Hebrew, I might revive the design :)

• Continue reading "I’m sure my Hebrew readers will be disappointed"