"Faithful" is on its way!!!!

U of Mich Press spring catalog is on their site, and we're on it!!!!

Good write-up and this is the first I've seen of the cover, it's really cool, in a brooding sort of way.

This is soooo exciting, and here I am at work, trying to pay attention to the job that keeps us in beer and skittles. Or something. Argh.

The book is on its way!

U of Michigan sent me a large package, which unfortunately arrived on the first rainy day we'd had here in Indy for months! I unwrapped 400+ pages of edited manuscript, some of them rather soggy, and we spread the wet ones out on the dining room table to dry.

I was amazed at the things they found that needed my attention. Name spellings that changed slightly (when the 1894 Benzie Banner spells a name one way and the court documents spell it another, who gets the tie-breaker? We decided not to argue with the court!), conflicting dates, and things that were vague enough to be confusing and needed further notes.

Harriet, who edits medical documents for a living, did yeoman's work on this beast. She found typos that U of Michigan's sharp-eyed editors missed!

If it's not wonderful when we finish, it's my own damned fault. Have to get the final thing sent off in time for them to receive it by 12/10.

It's finally happening, yowza!

-bt-

Harriet's second foot surgery--the continuing saga.

Tina and Vicki built the grand wheelchair ramp. Deb, Harriet, and Winston (in the blue harness) kibbitzed. High fives all around!

Harriet's getting very adept at wheelchair piloting. Mark W from work created a handy wheelchair carry-tray which also serves as a portable desk.

We went to the doctor today to have stitches removed. He said "It looks good" and we looked at him in disbelief. Some background: before the surgery, he met us in the pre-op area and wrote 'YES' on the appropriate foot with an indelible marker. Two weeks after the surgery, we were back in his office because the foot was getting more, rather than less, painful. They diagnosed a minor infection, which they outlined with another indelible marker. A week after, antibiotics had kicked in and the red area had shrunk back. Another week, stitches out, leaving a half-inch wide black L-shaped area, with multicolored patchy skin flaking off inside the 'L', wavy black marker outlining the area, and 'YES' written above the whole thing. Looks good? Hmmmm.

Millions of people happy?

Kermit the Frog, in the Muppet movie, wanted to go to Hollywood to make movies because it would make "millions of people happy". So I just got this little Smart car because I find them unbearably cute, and I've noticed that people turn around on the street and smile at it. Not quite up to Kermit standards, but nearing it!

T. L. Thacker's "Life on a Michigan Farm" a hit!

This came in an email from a pal who writes and is in process of self-publishing her work, "In Spite of Everything".

We gave her a copy of T. L. Thacker's Life on a Michigan Farm Between the Great Wars, and she has this to say:

Winterlude in Indy? We're nearly as cold as Ottawa, anyway.

Feb 12th and it's not been above freezing in Indy for several days, and not forecast for nearly a week more. I haven't checked the canal, but I'll bet it's frozen solid. Indianapolis needs to have a Winterlude festival here, so folks will bundle up and get outdoors in a festive way. Who should tell the mayor about this?

Book reviews?

For visitors who want to say more than just "Hi" but aren't sure how to start, here's a thought, what are you reading, who wrote it, do you recommend it?

I've been working my way through the Maisie Dobbs series (recommended by Eugenia Fernandez) about a woman who, after being a nurse on the front lines, has become a detective/psychologist. She doesn't consider a case complete until, once the mystery is solved, the participants are at peace with the findings. For history and fact-collectors, they're loaded with details about post-WWI England, how the war affected families, women, the economy, medical advances, etc. A little bit of supernatural doesn't add a whole lot to the series, IMHO, but doesn't get too over-the-top either.

Have just begun "The People of the Book", the book being an Passover Haggada that's rescued from the Bosnian chaos and has a lot of history behind it. I also recommend this for fact-collectors, it's DEEP in details about how book conservators do their work.

Congrats!

Hey, Becky Thacker, congratulations on your forthcoming book, and your brand new blog. I'm looking forward to lots of interesting stuff here.

Welcome to a new endeavor.

All these years in the computer industry and I'm just branching out into what every 15-year-old has been doing for years!

Why this, why now? Because someone told me to, that's why. :> Univ. of Michigan Press is going to publish my historical novel, Faithful Unto Death, and they'd like me to help them promote the thing. Having a blog where folks come to discuss books of all kinds and other topics near and dear to their hearts would be a good place to start.

Sooo, if you have a favorite book to recommend, a book group you belong to, or if you've been out walking and saw something fascinating in the natural world, it would be swell if you'd come here and share it.

Happy trails,
-becky t-