I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Casket Arts Building today. It's one of the renovated factories in NE Minneapolis that now houses artists' studios. I wasn't there to check out any available spaces today, although I would love to someday have a studio-office here. The shot above is of the common area on the second floor. I'm so head-over-heels in love with the light (here's the same space from a slightly different angle) that I would gladly take photos of the building all day long. For free.

Anyway, today I've got a bevy of answers for the more house-related (and general lifestyle) questions I got. There was quite a lot to talk about, so click the extended entry for the questions and answers.

Thanks for the questions, guys! I wanted to tackle the work-related topics in one post, because my answer was starting to get pretty long. I'll start answering the others later, so if there's something you're wondering, feel free to keep asking!

How did you get into publishing? How did you get started working as a proofreader? Where do you work, and what did you major in in college?

I'm lumping several of these questions into one here, because I think I can just do one long explanation and cover everything. I majored in English in college, with a self-chosen emphasis on composition and linguistics (there was just one umbrella 'English' degree, but there was a lot of freedom to choose classes within categories, so you could have a more literary education or more technical).

By my last year of university, Rob and I were dating, and I popped into the Snowbooks office to do a few random bits of work while I was in London that August. Em and I got along well, and it turned out I wasn't a terrible worker, so we made arrangements to get a work visa, etc, etc. So, basically, the only words of advice I can give as far as how to get into publishing are these: know the right people. I don't doubt that I'm skilled at what I do, but I do know that I wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't fallen into a very coincidental situation.

Because I've only ever worked for an indie publisher in the UK, I don't know in detail how the American publishing machine works, as far as starting a career. And my knowledge of the big publishing houses is anecdotal. There are benefits to working for a small publisher -- you'll get more responsibility and the opportunity to learn an array of skills -- but if you're looking for a traditional ladder to climb, with the pay raises that entails, you're going to have to try to break into one of the big guys.

These days I'm freelance, although most of my work is for Snowbooks -- technically as a contractor. Em and Rob own the company, and at heart I'm still part of Snowbooks, but on paper I work for myself. It's the dream situation, really: the relative stability of having a core income, but the flexibility of being freelance.

I probably talk about proof reading more than anything else, because it's the most time-consuming of all my tasks, but I wouldn't call myself a 'proofreader'. I also design covers, typeset books, and function as an acquisitions editor. I call myself a 'publishing project manager', but even that's a bit of a lie, as the only person I manage is myself -- I actually do everything it takes to turn an submitted manuscript into the files that make a book.

In the near future, I'm going to start a big push to acquire more freelance projects in my areas of skill -- proofreading, cover design, typesetting, and also web and other print design. Even though I think that the quality of my work is at least a little above average, it's scary trying to sell my services under my own name (as opposed to being behind the Snowbooks name). Like a lot of creative people, I tend to more time focusing on the outstanding work that others produce than valuing my own. But we shall see how it goes.

I decided yesterday to keep track of my schedule, so I could write about it here. I suppose I have a routine, but the timing of things varies wildly from month to month and changes quite a bit from one day to the next. But I thought that I might enjoy looking back at this post sometime in the future, to see what my 'typical' routine was like back in February 2010. So you can see it too, if you want.

9:40 -- Woke up. It's hard to even fathom setting an alarm clock every morning. On the rare occasions that I do need to wake up with an alarm, I'm usually awake a good hour before it goes off, because my brain can't relax. Now that I have an iPod Touch, I tend to loll about in bed for longer. I check my e-mail, play a bit of solitaire, etc.

10:00 -- I finally dragged myself out of bed. I put on my at-home clothes and then brush my teeth while I walk around, opening curtains/blinds, turning on the radio, and switching on the little space heater under the kitchen table (I love warrrrmth). Once my teeth are clean, I give Booty tinned food. I brew coffee in my Bialetti and make breakfast -- an English muffin with cream cheese and jam, Morningstar 'sausage' links, and some cantaloupe. I also take a multi-vitamin and an allergy pill, not that you could possibly care. I eat breakfast while listening to MidMorning on MPR.

10:30 -- Cleaned my breakfast dishes (I don't always do that after breakfast, though) and then checked my e-mail properly and read a few blogs.

11:00 -- Got dressed for the gym, packed my bag, and headed out.

11:30 -- Ran on the treadmill. Cursed myself for not yet removing a couple of Jam songs from my running playlist. These particular ones are strangely disorienting, which isn't what I need when I'm running.

12:10 -- Showered, got dressed, dried my hair, etc.

12:45 -- Stopped at the coffee shop and ordered a decaf Americano with one pump of sugar-free vanilla. Fancy! I was going to sit and write my shopping list, but there were no open tables, so I went to the car and ate my granola bar instead. Because I've been waking up so late, I'm not really hungry for a proper lunch, so I just make sure I eat something (usually a protein-y bar) after running.

1:00 -- Went to the supermarket for some essentials. I bought two quarts of yogurt so I wouldn't run out for a while, and when I got home I realized I'd hidden a quart in one of the crisper drawers. So now I have three quarts, but that'll be gone in two weeks, probably (and they're 'best by' March 10th).

2:00 -- Had my afternoon meal (yogurt with tinned peaches and Honey Smacks, of course) while listening to Talk of the Nation.

2:30 -- Finally time to settle into work! Typesetting was up first. What I like about typesetting and working on covers (as opposed to proofreading) is that I can listen to music, which makes the time go faster. First up was some Glenn Miller and then Feist. It can't be too rowdy.

5:30 -- Dinner! I reheated the leftover half of a Kashi Mexicali pizza and made a spinach salad with tomato and avocado. Whenever I have a sort of 'Tex-Mex' salad, I mix together salsa and sour cream for the dressing -- more salsa than sour cream. It is fantastic. After dinner, I do the dishes and feed both cats.

6:00 -- More work. I think I started proofreading the next book I'm working on at this point, but there might have been a few other little tasks first.

7:30 -- Ice cream time! I watched an episode of Scrubs on Hulu, because ice cream time demands something to watch.

8:00 -- More work again. I'm proofing something I haven't actually read before (but I know the author well enough to trust that it's not going to need major editorial work), so it's much more fun to get into the story while I go. I wrote a couple of e-mails, too, but I actually managed to pay attention to proofing for several hours. And I ate an apple at some point.

11:00-ish -- Called it a day, work-wise, and fired up the internet. Read blogs.

Midnight -- Updated twelve22 and uploaded photos to flickr. Noticed that one of my authors in the UK was awake, except it was tomorrow for her.

12:30 -- Read, ate a few baby carrots (the latest bag I got has such teeny tiny carrots!), then washed the last few dishes.

1:00 -- Brushed my teeth, got in bed. Realized my water bottle was empty, so I had to get up and fill it. Played some iPod solitaire.

1:40 -- Lights out. Time to sleep.

And that's that! It's more of a late-night schedule than I would say I typically run on, but it's working for me right now. I wish I would have done a 'day in the life' post when I first moved back to Minneapolis, because I would waking up around 5:30am back then!

-- I made bread yesterday, because I'd been thinking for days how good some toasted, homemade bread would be for breakfast. Last night, after finally doing what I needed to do to make that a reality (that is, having baked the bread), I realized I didn't want toast for breakfast. No way. I'm totally committed to oatbran and Ezekiel English muffins right now (not all in ONE breakfast, of course). So I had some toast for my afternoon snack instead. Problem solved.

-- Every few months, my next-door neighbor calls me to ask a question about the children's book she's written and is trying to get published (not by me). This is the only thing I can remember her ever calling about (which is fine), yet every time she says, 'Hi, it's your neighbor, _____,' I get that sudden called-to-the-principal's-office panic (not that I was ever called to the principal's office). What have I done? Did I shovel my part of the sidewalk the wrong way?

-- I've been trying to get several books ready for print, which means lots of time spent finishing off covers. I generally do just the front cover of a book ahead of time, for catalogues and such, and then do the full cover -- spine and back -- nearer to print time. So that's what I was doing. And as I finished with the third cover, I realized that all those current books are horror and/or fantasy. And I had a private cackle of glee, because how awesome is it that I design covers for those sorts of books?

-- I recently figured out how to make iTunes fetch album artwork (yeah, yeah, yeah -- I hadn't actually TRIED before), and I just used the little Apple remote to make my iMac play music, so now it's displaying the album cover. Classy. I haven't figured out, though, how to make my iPod sync up and fetch the new artwork, short of first deleting the music from the iPod and then reloading it (which would be a pain, since I don't have my entire library on the iPod).

-- Having the album artwork on my iPod is important, by the way, for when I'm at the gym. Because when I casually choose a new song as I run, I want people to glance over and think, 'Hey, she's listening to The Jam while she works out. She's so cool.' Then they will not notice my red face or judge the speed at which I'm running. Everybody wins. Especially The Jam.

-- I miss the gym and the rich fantasy life I have regarding what goes on in the minds of everybody there. Is my ankle better yet?

First of all, thank you to everybody who's bought a Winter-Time Paper House pack so far -- thank you, thank you! It's been very exciting seeing the number downloaded go up. Don't forget that there's a flickr group that you can add your photos to, once you've built the houses. It's pretty strange (in an awesome way) to see my little creations in different locations around the world! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my last post for details on the new paper house pack.

Seeing the enthusiasm for my little houses has made me think about how amazing it would be to do this for a living. Wake up, sit down, do some drawing all day. The only illustration I've done professionally has been for book covers, which is very to-order and not at all done in a 'what shall I draw today?' type of mood.

I think the best bit of paid illustration (well, I earned my salary, anyway) I've done was the little drawings for Snowbooks' edition of A.A. Milne's The Sunny Side (Ecco in the US then bought our edition -- my editing and illustrations -- and did a lovely hardcover for the States). Silly drawings aside, The Sunny Side is SUCH a good collection of stories and poems. You should buy it now. The Snowbooks edition.

Anyway, I didn't plan on talking about illustration and drawing, but I do like the idea of doing a bit more of it on my own and making the finished products available to you. We'll see! It's just one of those things in which I've received no proper training, yet I've (obnoxiously) been given the opportunity to try my hand at it with at least a little bit of success. I did work hard for the English degree that I now use to comb through manuscripts for the tiniest of grammatical errors, though. So it's not all been handed to me on a platter.

Anyway again, I meant to say that I individually hulled each of the seeds from my homegrown pumpkins, because I wanted to make pumpkin butter. I found a 'quick' solution on the world-wide internet, which said to simply bash the seeds open with a wooden mallet and then dump them in water (the shells would float; the seeds would sink) -- but the few shells I did manage to crack just resulted in smashed seeds, meat and all. So I went back to opening them each. One. At. A. Time. It was almost as bad as the year my mom grew popcorn, and we had to pick off each sharp, pointy kernel from the cobs.

I used this recipe, although I only had 1.5 cups of seeds in the end, so I changed the amounts. Sadly, my tiny food processor just didn't get the seeds 'powdery' enough before I added the oil and honey, so my finished product is a bit... bittier. Not really a butter at all. BUT -- the toasted seeds and the honey make it taste like baklava, so I can't really complain.

It tastes extra good with some maple syrup drizzled over, but then, what doesn't?

I've had a full weekend: running at the gym, knitting with friends, Sunday brunch, and football watching (I do not so much 'care' as 'support'). And working on another paper house, as you can see. One of the great things about my new glasses is that, since they're not scratched up, I don't mind keeping them on for non-computer close-up things -- like drawing. My old glasses felt too 'in the way'. So now I don't have to go blind!

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on my paper house post, by the way. I keep getting more and more ideas for new houses and buildings; it's hard to stop.

As much as I'd like to draw all day, I have so much to do this week. I really need to make a proper to-do list, because everything is weighing on me much more than is necessary. I feel like there's so much I need to get done outside of real work, but I'm pretty sure all I actually have to do is call my insurance agent. And deposit a check. Hardly a mountain that needs scaling.

And even though my work tasks are much higher in number, I know if I sit down and just tackle one thing after another, I can clear a lot of my list in only a few hours. Putting things off takes sooo much more time than getting them done. Bah.

If only I could live in a world where little paper houses were as good as currency. And chocolate chip cookies were a nutritionally balanced meal. And none of my favourite TV shows had ever been canceled, and Beany could speak English. You know, so long as I'm wishing for things.

p.s. -- Hey, my birthday is in one month! Woo hoo!

-- Bookfair is over! Holiday is go! Hey, everybody, let's get sick! Dang it. I still headed into Mainz today for a nice walk around and a look at the shops. I need more money, is what I've decided. I don't know why Rob won't play the lottery with me (now you have to imagine me with a jabby stick, with which to further annoy Rob).

-- I had this Apfel Kolatsche for my afternoon snack, and it was a bit decadent, if you ask me. But why come to Germany if you're going to agonize over every pile of sugar and butter you put into your body, right? The base wasn't really sweet, and it had apples on it, so it was pretty much fruit on toast. And I hear streusel is packed with vitamins. You might remember that I'm particular about plates and dishes (but not in an obnoxious way -- oh no!), and while the tea cup I've been supplied with is rather nice, the one water glass in the cupboard seems a bit dodgy. So I've been drinking water from a newly-empty yogurt jar. Bonus -- just add the lid, and it becomes a travel mug!

-- Speaking of yogurt, I became overwhelmed with choice at the Biomarkt this afternoon. I finally settled on date+nuts (I can't remember what kind of nut, and I'm sick, so I can't be bothered to get up and walk fifteen feet to the kitchen). A special flavour for autumn! I also grabbed some veggie Schnitzel and veggie Frankfurters, the latter of which tastes almost exactly like a tofu-dog, except with a different sort of smokiness. Not bad.

-- The unfortunate thing about being in Germany is that I become an idiot. My grasp of the language is so poor-to-mediocre that even when I can stumble my way through the first two-thirds of a conversation, I wind up completely bombing after thirty seconds and have to end with a wide-eyed, confused (and mostly terrified) look. And, of course, everything I do manage to say doesn't make me sound like a genius, either. I get a little better every year, but spending only 1/26 of my time in Germany (and a good portion of THAT in an English-speaking fair hall) doesn't exactly keep me sharp.

-- And since I mentioned the fair, I might as well say that it went alright. It was very slow, but I met some new folks and had a few good walk-by's (people stopping at the stand without a meeting). But mainly I thought Big Thoughts and learned a lot that I wouldn't have otherwise done had I not gone. And, I hate to say it, but I might have had a bit of useful networking after-hours (I have traditionally not been a schmoozer). One big do was up the top of a posh hotel, and I remembered to bring my camera this year. Not a bad view, eh?

-- I expanded my group of Frankfurt friends this year when I got invited along to dinner with several people who work for various image libraries. I know, right: what are the odds of me getting along with men and women who've chosen to work with photos for a living? But they were indeed a lovely bunch of people. I also spent time with friends from previous years, including Gwyn, whom I never once made a sandwich for, despite his inviting me along to various enjoyable dinners. To make up for my lack of gratitude, you should visit the very best open access picture library and engage in some image-based commerce.

-- Time now to make myself a cup of tea and focus on killing germs (whilst lounging in a suitably on-holiday manner). To the kettle!

Oh boy. I don't think I've ever spent as much time in one day working on the same book cover as I did today. I even started to get a bit nauseated at one point (from looking at the screen too long, even after I put on my glasses), and I tried to take a break, but I had a hard time tearing myself away from it. I think it was worth the trouble.

I did stop to eat, though, and I think I might be entering a tofu phase. I always love tofu (yes, me-five-years-ago, it's true!), but sometimes it's just the Best Thing Ever and I can't get enough. All it needs is a little tamari (okay, and some garlic powder and cumin) and a few minutes in a hot skillet. I had the exact same meal as above for lunch yesterday, too, only with broccoli instead of cauliflower+kale. The toast is my favourite rye bread from Tobies in Hinckley -- I'll be back there next week, so I can restock!

Anyway, making book covers is a strange thing. I feel like I either 'get it' on the first try or never will (I usually wind up passing those covers on to Em, whose cover mojo seems to be more on-demand than mine). And I've been not 'feeling it' at all lately, but I knocked out three covers I really like just this week. It's sort of a relief to know I haven't lost the touch.

I suppose I don't usually talk about work here, but I feel like I'm in the groove at the moment. It was great to go to the cabin last week and have so much time to read submissions -- I'm going back for a few days next week to finish those and to get some proof reading done. I like the balance of having a week of reading at the cabin and then a week of getting covers done and being connected at home (I need the big screen for design-y stuff).

I'm getting close-ish to being ready with the new design for this site, but it'll be a few days yet. I was going to work on it this evening, but I couldn't stop working. That's strange.