Oh, Dear

This is how I started my morning. Imagine me innocently driving along in the morning rush, thinking about one of the manuscripts I had to reject last night. It was good. It wasn't right for our publishing house, but it was very well-written and coherent. If only I could have figured out a way to angle it so that it would fit in our lines. But I couldn't and I had to reject it, and it was bugging me this morning. Really, I hate letting the good ones go.

So I'm musing about the state of the publishing industry and how everything is driven by the shelf labels used by the bookstores, and how even a great manuscript will be hard to publish if nobody can figure out how to shelve it, and I happen to glance over at the car in the next lane.

That bumper sticker is difficult to read because, let's face it, taking a picture of a moving car from a moving car isn't the easiest task. So you'll have to trust me when I tell you that it advertises a new series by author Laurel K. Hamilton. The sharp-eyed among you will notice the apostrophe in the title. That apostrophe signals the possessive case. But what do the animators possess? I mean, other than an extraneous punctuation mark.

So that irritated me -- the freaking title, for chrissakes, and some copyeditor somewhere screwed it up because they can't distinguish plurals from possessives. This is such a basic mistake. It's like an auto mechanic who pumps gas directly into the backseat of the car. Or a gardener who rips out the shrubs and leaves the weeds. It should never happen.

Meanwhile, Laurel K. Hamilton (who surely cannot be blamed for this, I would hope) sells gobs of books with glaring grammatical errors, while my poor rejected writer last night writes excellent prose and can't get a break.
It just bugs me.

















And as long as we're on the topic of people doing the wrong thing, I must confess that I cast on something new. This is a hat -- or it will be a hat, and it will match my eventual clapotis. The fabric reminds me of a speckled easter egg. Me likee.

Another confession. I have somehow managed to get myself into three knitalongs for this fall. The first, the Persuasion knitalong, starts September 1, but I have already cast on a blue empire blouse, the Butterfly.

The second, the Second Wave Clapotis KAL, starts September 23 as the Summer of Socks ends.

The third is the Fulmar KAL which I've cobbled together from a group of amazing and brave knitters. That one is going to be a project. It starts October 1, and will require a lot of time and attention to detail. I'm looking forward to that!

Plus, I promised to teach a friend to knit cables by knitting a hat together with her. We're starting that sometime soon.

This gives me -- brace yourselves --
-- four socks
-- one cardigan
-- one hat
-- one novelty scarf
-- one shirt
-- and some secret knitting
currently OTN. Plus I'll be casting on a cabled hat and Fulmar soon.

No, I don't miss my mind. Why do you ask?