Monday, August 13, 2007

Punch Drunk at 2am

It's moments like these when I question my chosen profession. I have reached the end of this seemingly never-ending marathon that is the process of writing this book on James Baldwin. While I realize there will still be changes and proofing and indexing to be done once the editors see it, the backbreaking, soul-sucking, mind-numbing work of writing it will be done shortly. (I am just about done proofreading the last chapter.) But before I turn it in tomorrow, last commemorate the process. The following pictures were taken in my family's den. For the last three months my children have been unable to eat a proper meal at a proper table because my stack of James Baldwin stuff has gotten increasingly larger and higher.


Here are a mere portion of the books I have been using. Notice Stratego at the bottom of the pile? Brian and Frances had cleared a space on the table to play, and I kicked them off in a fit of writing inspiration.



Here's what my workspace looks like right now. Underneath all this paper is the draft of the next book, which needs to be at the publisher's in a few short weeks.



Here's the corner of my den. There are many, many, many corners of my place that look exactly like this. We've had to clear out kids' toys from our living room to make way for all my Baldwin crap.

I have been informed by my whole family that they will be happy when this is done.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are done! Congratulations! rock on conseula! You are now a person who has written a book. It is as if you are jane austen....(I heard that the film version of jane austen's take on Another Country was coming out soon....)

Anonymous said...

Woo hoo! That is amazing! I love the photos. Now you can begin the fun work of cleaning up--I hate cleaning up but kind of love cleaning up at the end of a long project like this. Take all those books back to the library--that is the best.

Ooo, and start writing your acknowledgments page. I love that, too.

Anonymous said...

Hooray, Conseula!!! Glad that the soul-sucking part is done. Congratulations on all that hard work and the finished tome.

:)

Mark Anthony Neal said...

Congrats, Consuela!

Another Chance to Get It Right said...

Congrats!

I also want to say that I just saw Brian's write-up in Skirt!, and I was so excited because I recognized him! So, actually, congrats to both of you!

-Jenny [Matt Foley's roommate]

Anonymous said...

Good job! That was a LONG process! But you hung in there!