Dear reader(s?): I have a confession to make. For the past two weeks I withheld important information from you. You may have thought that life at the Quill was business as usual, that nothing was out of the ordinary, that Elke, Tim, Jill, and I were working our butts off from Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:30 — just like always. Well, although that assumption is mostly correct, you would be wrong in one key area: Tim and Elke were actually relaxing their butts off in Italy, celebrating their fortieth anniversary! They only returned last Thursday evening, and Monday was our first day all in the shop together again.
(How was their trip? They tell me: Excellent.)
While they were gone I was responsible for checking and responding (where I could) to Tim’s email, picking up the mail every day, finishing up as much work as possible, making sure Cho-Cho and Lee-Lee weren’t too lonely, and, of course, keeping nasty burglars away by slyly avoiding any mention of the Inksters’ absence on the internet. Future interns, beware: Tim’s email is much more ferocious than any possible burglar. May you never have to deal with it. Some days it took an hour before I could get to my regular job. Of course, I can’t complain too much; my blog- and Twitter-following tells me that deluges of email is common in publishing, so I had better get used to it.
This week I’ve finished my part for the proofs of Eric Ormsby’s Fine Incisions (now it’s Tim’s job to finish it), and Helwig’s Mystery Stories also got sent off to Doris the editor. A couple of days ago I got started on typesetting a Spring 2011 title, The Essential Richard Outram, selected by Amanda Jernigan (former PQL intern!) — we haven’t even written catalogue copy for it yet, but we have the complete manuscript and, likely because Amanda once worked here too, she has made it ridiculously easy to typeset (consistent, no funny symbols, the poems fit the pages — easy peasy!). I’ll be done before I know it.
On Saturday the Doors Open: Erin Village event happens, which is pretty exciting considering all of the publicity work I put into it while T&E were away. The weather is supposed to be perfect so we hope that there will be a decent turn-out for the guided walking tours, performances, etc. that will be going on all day. Today Tim had his hour in the spotlight — or rather, on the radio, since the visited the morning show on Erin Radio for a chat, just like I did a couple weeks ago.
I won’t be at Doors Open, though. On Sunday I fly out to Vancouver for SFU’s Publishing Immersion, and that means Saturday will be spent packing clothes and purses (not sure what to wear), printing tickets and maps (not sure where to go), painting my toenails (sandal weather), and possibly — probably — hyperventilating. Actually, to be honest, I am super excited and have been looking forward to this all summer. I hope to learn tons and to make a lot of friends — and also to get some tips on what I should do post-France: graduate school, or work?
For you future interns, I’ll also give you at least one highly-detailed scoop on the program. Maybe even two. (Can you tell I’m eating ice cream?)
