The Page Setup

"I've been set-up!!!," I scream to my laptop [again.]

As I see the unsettling spinning wheel icon pop up on-screen, I leap into the air and land on my left heel...hard-- hard enough that it takes out some of my frustration, but hard enough that it hurts enough to regret.

In the last several days, I'd spent a lot of time working on what amounted to very little... My only real accomplishment seemed to be the success of the Spinach Rice Gratin dish I made for dinner the other day-- a yummy recipe from a fave recipe blogger at 101cookbooks
and a recipe I'd been meaning to make for awhile.

"And there it spins," I mutter to myself as I crack my knuckles, "the spinning wheel of Macintosh hell..."

I've been working on the page layout and set-up of my first book, Once More, With Feeling.

Unbelievably, Incredibly frustrating!

Writing it, illustrating it, etc. were nothing compared to the abysmal, harrowing experience of getting the layout "print-ready," mostly due to pagination and resolution issues.

Finally, miraculously... when I didn't care anymore and I was about to give up and forget about it entirely: It worked!

(Note: images need to be 300 dpi, manual page breaks are necessary where it really counts especially when graphics are involved...)

Like most worthy things, the end product will be worth the pain eventually. To be honest, I'm more relieved than excited. At this point, I can't forget the all-to-recent pain of the whole experience. (For one thing, my left heel still hurts.)

I'll report back when Once More, With Feeling becomes officially available and then, I'll be excited!

Illustrations credit: Scott Vogel, from my upcoming book, Once More, With Feeling.
Copyright © 2008 KLiedle