On balance, I've had better weeks

It got off to a great start, with Monday night's festivities. And it was nice to get an early Chrossing on Tuesday. Kinda went downhill from there, however.

Ready for the latest snag in the book saga? Nothing tragic in the overall scheme of things, just more frustration. When we last left off, I'd received my proof copy and the cover looked 100% perfect. The interior copy had a few minor tweaks, so I made those, resubmitted the file and they approved it last week. I could have made the book available to buy then.

Buuuuuuuut... I didn't want to, just yet. Instead, I ordered five copies for giveaways. Figured once I got those and was reassured at how perfect they were, I could make the announcement.

The package arrived yesterday afternoon. I eagerly tore into it, plucked one of the books out, then another... and my heart sank.

In this printing, they'd shifted the entire cover image down about 1/4 inch. Not that big a deal, right? But it was. It ruined the cover.

On the back, the end of the copy was now just hovering over the bottom edge, plus the portion of the copy that wrapped around the ISBN box was practically sitting on top of the box. And on the front, at the bottom where my hand rests, two of my fingertips were chopped off. Unacceptable.

I didn't get upset or angry. I just sighed in resignation. Sure. Of course. Murphy (and his law) is alive and well.

So back on the phone I went to CreateSpace support, explaining what had happened. They are sending me a prepaid mailer so I can mail back the proof copy plus one of the new copies. Then they can compare the two and see what happened. (sigh) More delay, folks.

Hey, since I'm experiencing all this aggravation at the outset, does that mean that once this damn thing finally goes on sale, all will go swimmingly and it will sell a million copies? Well, one can dream.

In other news... had a dental checkup this week. The good news: my teeth are in great shape. The bad news: my gums are a mess; portions of them, anyway. Had a lot of bleeding during the cleaning. Also, for most of my adult life, I've had recession on my lower front teeth, and they've been monitoring it. Apparently, it has progressed to the point where they're concerned about it and they want me to have oral surgery.

It's called a gingival graft. Briefly, they cut a piece of gum from the inside of your cheek or the roof of your mouth and graft it on the receding area. Lovely. Not cheap, either.

I scheduled it for mid-October. I'm going to need some healing time and I don't know of anything happening around that date. I didn't want to do it next month, because I don't care to wreck my birthday. It's waited this long; it can wait a little longer.

Oh, and my mother is in the hospital, yet again. Renal problems this time. I spoke with my stepfather last night; he told me she has been unresponsive for the past two or three weeks. Just kind of stares at him. Her head lolls forward, as if her neck can't bear the weight of it.

Why do people have to go on like this? It's such a travesty. My stepdad said he feels so guilty about giving DNR instructions; says he's "signing her death sentence." I told him no, you are not. Her body and her brain gave her a death sentence years ago.

Blech.

Sorry, kids. Don't mean to be a downer. I'm actually feeling quite calm, kind of rolling with things. And I do have some fun things to look forward to, for balance. Must have balance.

Hey, the Dow is back up again today. What a roller coaster ride that's been, huh? Kinda like life.

Later...