This day today (much like yesterday) has been totally and utterly devoured by the Beast. That is, of course, the book due to come out soon, which has been privately named the Beast for ever and ever... or at least since before I came in on the project.

The fact that it's coming out soon means that it's been typeset, and edited, and we are currently reading the proofs, trying to catch any remaining errors. Which means that Gillian read it all, and I read it all, and we are now making sure that our edits don't contradict or overlap and are getting it all nicely in shape. That, in turn, means another chat session tomorrow, when we will hopefully get through most of the remainder...

At least I got to sit in the wintergarden and look at nice garden flowers while doing the reading. Like this one:


And that one:


And now back to get a little bit more work done today!

The date when our book will be available is creeping closer! Monday, June 15 will be the day. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the book at our publisher's page, here. You can also pre-order it there (or, probably, at the independent bookstore of your choice).

It is thrilling to have a book come out, and I still can't believe it. We've worked a long time on that Beast of a book; so long that it seems really weird that it is finally done and finished and the work is over!

I'm also going to sell it via my online shop (and if you want, I'll even sign it for you). You can pre-order it there!

News from here: The cat is sleeping, hazel pollen are flying prolifically (much to the chagrin of my poor nose), the sun is shining, and I have planted tomato seeds on Sunday.

Probably more interesting to you is the fact that after the mad rush to the finish line for our book project, Gillian and I are now patiently waiting until the book has done its things at the publisher's and we'll get feedback and the edits.

Apart from this, the blogosphere has provided me with links to things that you might also find interesting. Such as this Digventure piece about pioneering women in archaeology, which also fits in very nicely with Women's History Month.

John Scalzi has an opinion on opinions, and is voicing it on his blog.

Finally, a paper about medieval bread:

As you can see from the astonishingly early blog post (before the afternoon!), I am slowly resurfacing. Our deadline for the manuscript submission has been met, even though technology conspired against us to make it as hard as possible, and there were a few last-minute decisions to make. Beast Trivia Snippet #1: When both authors of a joint project are suffering from nasty colds with plenty of side effects and too little sleep, things can be more tricky than they would ordinarily be.

While there will be some remaining stuff to sort out and clear up, and at one point in the future also the edit/proofread, things for now are much relaxed. A very, very good thing - I spent most of Saturday (the part not spent working, that is) and most of Sunday resting in deference to the nasty cold, and it finally seems to have taken the hint and is letting up. My devious plan for today is to do as little as I can possibly get away with, and I have already made much progress on that score: tea has been drunk, there was leisurely breakfast with a book, whiling away some time catching up on blogs I like to read, and petting the cat. Also: blogging with more time on my hands than these last days.

While I did not find much time to stay current with things these last days, it has not escaped me that Leonard Nimoy has passed away. I'm one of the generation that grew up with the New Enterprise, with Wesley Crusher and Captain Picard and Worf and Data, but I've seen a few of the original series too, as well as the films. Many other people have said a lot of appropriate words about Mr. Nimoy (and Mr. Spock), so I'll just post this video which, additionally, describes what I plan for today. And possibly also for part of tomorrow.



Rest in peace, Leonard Nimoy.

It is Friday, it is sunny, and the day has just turned even nicer than before by a completely unexpected, picture-related miracle in last minute. It totally made my day! Otherwise, our manuscript is sorted and formatted and the picture list is lined up and only needs one last joint checkup for the captions to eliminate any left-over typos... and we're good to go.

Wow. It will be weird to have the Beast transition from this stack of files on my computer to an actual book in book form that is being available to people, and being read... and I hope we've done good by it.

Once the thing is sent off, I will settle down to cure the nasty cold that has decided on the worst moment ever to pester me. It's not nice meeting a deadline when you have a cold and can't even complain properly due to lack of voice. But, as OkGo so aptly put it:



This too shall pass!

We are finalising the last bits for the book. So of course, nerves are a bit taut, and I think we'll both be very happy to completely forget about the book for a while when we will have delivered it! In any case, I can tell you that I have learned a huge amount of things while doing this book. Not only what a minyan is and what Australians call fairy bread - I've also found out how you can use two hands to count to 9999. (That beats counting binary by a far stretch - binary hands will only bring you to 1023.) I've also learned that it has its distinct disadvantages to write a book with someone on the other side of the globe, balanced by the distinct advantage that someone gets work done while you sleep, and you can wake up to a new iteration of the project. On an active day with many small edits, we also found that a file can go through six or seven iterations during the time we're both active, which is my morning and Gillian's night. Soon now. Soon.

After a little scare on Monday, we are now all set with pretty, pretty pictures for our book, or will be once the pictures that were promised but are still outstanding are delivered. Many pretty, pretty pictures, thanks to the gracious help of a lot of people all over the place!

On Friday, we shall bring our stack of beauties into a proper order for sending them off to be published. The end of this craziness is drawing near!

(And I will probably sleep for three days straight once this is done.)