And, in some ways, I was right. That’s the unfortunate truth.

I have accomplished many things in the last year—such as completing the NYU copyediting course, moving to the NYC area, and figuring out what the heck working in “Production” actually means—but in more ways than one, I still feel like I’ve failed. As an intern at other publishing companies, I went out of my way to introduce myself to people, to learn names and faces and procedures, to fully surround myself with the publishing industry culture that I love so much. But, in only one year working in the industry full-time, I’ve grown entirely complacent. I’ve only been to one happy hour, have drank only one glass of wine while discussing my favorite books and authors. I haven’t been to a single reading or lecture. And, worst of all, I’ve only written two pages. That’s just sad.

The bottom line is this: I’ve got a lot I want to accomplish in next few years. I want to write more, edit more. I want to do more, be more. Not to mention, read more. See more. Experience more. Too many hours wasted, and I’m not letting any more pass me by.

New Year’s isn’t for another 3+ months, but with this one-year anniversary of my entrance into Publishing—and with me being Jewish, and Rosh Hashana just behind us—I’m making my resolutions early. My professional resolutions, that is. I also want to eat healthy, exercise more, sign up for a tap class, keep my room organized, and all those other things that aren’t actually going to happen. (Well, except that tap class; that will happen if I ever gets togethers the extra moneys.) These are the resolutions that I have to keep, the ones who are eventually going to determine if I’ve really taken the risks I say I will.

1. Write every day. A line, a paragraph, nine pages. A blog entry. A poem. A well-crafted letter. (Erm, Facebook status updates? Don’t count.) Write every day, no matter what, no matter what excuses I can come up with. If I were as good at writing as coming up with excuses not to, I’d have a bestseller by now.
2. Go to at least one reading/discussion/lecture/event every month. I’m hoping to go to much more than that, but let’s start a resolution I know I can keep. I’m working in New York, for chrissake. It’s not like there’s nothing going on. Let’s do-it to-it.
3. Take chances. I was trying not to be vague, but I really can’t think of another way to phrase this one. I’m going to try things that scare me, introduce myself to people that intimidate me, go for what I really want instead of settling for what is handed to me

One year of settling in, learning the ropes, getting acquainted may have been necessary, but it’s also been too long. It’s time to work for it. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wishing I had.

The Addams Family (image (c) the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation)

Andrew and I were lucky enough to score an invite to the Charles Addams’ show opening tonight, and I couldn’t be happier that we went. The exhibit is well-designed, interesting, pertinent, and extremely entertaining. I suspect I’ll be back before it ends in May.

The macabre comedic genius that is Charles Addams will never, in my opinion, be topped in the world of the print cartoon. It may seem strange to place the words “macabre” and “comedic” in such close proximity to each other, but if you have any awareness of the Addams Family, you know what I’m saying. The exhibit places the Addams Family into a surprising context. Addams used these characters and their relations to each other to comment on the ideal nuclear family of the time. His work comments on other societal and political norms as well, from the “battle of the sexes,” to pop culture and media, to technology, to the economy, and so on.

Addams’ cartoons can easily be taken for granted: a timely joke here, an ironic, postcard-worthy cartoon there. Of course, the creation of the Addams Family was no small task. However, it wasn’t until tonight, seeing so many of his creations in one place, that I truly felt I understood the overwhelming impact of his work: It forces New Yorkers to stand back and look at themselves, for better or for worse.

And stand back and look at themselves they did. Almost as intriguing as viewing Addams’ cartoons was watching the others guests’ reactions and listening in on their discussions. It seemed that every person found something of themselves in one image or another. My favorite reactions of the night revolved around Addams’ depiction of a harried man carrying his jewelry-drenched wife into a pawn shop: “Oh, that’s horrible,” one older woman said to another, passing quickly by. Less than two minutes later, two men stopped in front of the cartoon and let out full-on belly laughs. Like it or not, Addams strikes a chord.

(image (c) the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation)

What I find truly amazing is how his pieces take on such contrasting tones. As Andrew and I walked around the room tonight, we found ourselves continually surprised. One image made us laugh, while the next on the wall caused us to think, “Yeah, I can relate to that,” in a sad sort of way. Specifically, Addams’ series of wind-up men, roboting around the city until winding out of energy, comes to mind. He depicts them big and small, alone on the side of the street or shuttling around in huge masses. Sure, the comparison between people and machines has been made before—who hasn’t suffered the rat-race rush through Penn Station in the morning? I know I have—but the idea of people as wind-up toys is something different, and deflating. So much of his work that was relevant during his time remains relevant today and, I suspect, will remain relevant for ages to come.

(And speaking of relevant, this night has absolutely upped my anticipation level for the new Addams Family musical.)

My Souvenir: A postcard with an image from Steuben’s 1953 Christmas catalog, on which a women holds what the back of the card describes as “Angus McDougall’s iconic Apple.” It might not seem to hold much relevance, but something about a woman holding a Big Apple in her hands seemed appropriate for the evening. I’m absolutely captivated by it.

Current Commute

    30 minutes driving (to train station)
+  8 minutes (getting Dunkin Donuts and/or waiting for train)
+  56 minutes (losing my mind and/or sleeping on NJ Transit)
+  9 minutes (walking to subway and waiting for train)
+  12 minutes (playing Sudoku on the R/W to Prince Street)
+  2 minutes (walking from the subway station to my office)

= 117 minutes getting to work in the morning.

Then:

    2 minutes (walking from office to subway)
+  5 minutes (waiting for the R/W that is always few-and-far-between at rush hour, whyyyy)
+  15 minutes (staring mindlessly on the R/W, to which I’ve added 3 ”train traffic ahead, please be patient” minutes*)
+  10 minutes (walking to Penn Station, with an extra minute added for apologizing to tourist I’ve bowled over)
+  4 minutes (waiting for Andrew to arrive because he is always late, even though he works closer to Penn than me, whyyyy)
+  3 minutes (rat-racing to the platform)
+  56 minutes (NJ Transit time again, give or take 10 minutes. Or 30, if there’s weather. Yes, weather.)
+  2 minutes (running to car from train station)
+  12 minutes (sitting in New Brunswick traffic)
+  25 minutes (driving home)

= 134 minutes getting home from work in the evening

So:

117 minutes in the morning + 134 minutes in the evening = 251 minutes total commuting time

Commute from My New Apartment! in Hoboken (as of 3/1)

    1 minute (walking down the stairs, because it’s on the bazillionth floor** of a walkup)
+  5 minutes (walking to PATH station, smiling and waving at the friendly people I see along the way)
+  12 minutes (playing Sudoku on the PATH train, because I still need mah Sudoku time)
+  3 minutes (transfer to BDFV at 14th)
+  5 minutes (trying to locate my Scholastic ID, which I always seem to lose in the morning, on the subway to my office)
+  3 minutes (walking from Broadway/Laf. subway station to office)

= 29 minutes getting to work in the morning

Then:

    3 minutes (walking from office to Broadway/Laf.)
+  8 minutes (waiting for, and taking, the BDFV to 14th)
+  12 minutes (trying not to be a creeper while reading newspaper over man’s shoulder on the PATH)
+  5 minutes (walking from PATH station to my apartment)
+  2 minutes (walking up the stairs, with short breaks between floors)

= 30 minutes getting home in the evening

So:

29 minutes in the morning + 30 minutes in the evening = 59 minutes total commuting time

Conclusion

251 minutes of current commute – 59 minutes of future commute = 192 minutes saved per day

192 minutes saved per day / 60 minutes-per-hour = 3.2 hours of my life I get back each day

What am I going to do with 3.2 hours? Oh, I know, sleep. And write. And read. And go to readings and lectures and Happy Hours and other events I’ve been skipping. With 3.2 hours, I’m going to live.

Live, I tell you!

*”Please be patient”? I’m trapped in a subway car. Do I really have any other option? And actually, Mr. Conductor-Man: You can make me wait, but you can’t make me be patient.

**OK, so it’s only the fourth floor. But that’s still three full flights of stairs! If you don’t think it’s a lot, talk to Matt, A.C., and Dan after they move my furniture in on Sunday. . . .

Our Favorite First Lines/Phrases of Books, in No Particular Order

“There once was a boy named Eustace Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.”
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (translated from the original)

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now, this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.”
Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

“It was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.”
C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
 
“A screaming comes across the sky.”
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
 
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451
 
“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (and my coworker’s spot-on comment: “But doesn’t the Bell Jar line sort of describe New York all of the time?”)
 
“We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle. My sisters and I were all counting on having one birthday apiece during our twelve-month mission. ‘And heaven knows,’ our mother predicted, ‘they won’t have Betty Crocker in the Congo.’ “
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
 
“The king was irate.”
John Updike, Gertrude and Claudius
 
“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world.”
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
 
“SATURDAY – I am almost a whole day old, now. I arrived yesterday. 
That is as it seems to me. And it must be so, for if there was a day-before-yesterday I was not there when it happened, or I should remember it.”
Mark Twain, Eve’s Diary (translated from the original)
 
“All this happened, more or less.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

• pay off nearly $80,000 in student loans,
• buy holiday presents for family and friends, and
• walk the streets of Soho every day. I work across from an H&M, next to a Sephora, and diagonally from an Express, a Forever 21, a Lucky Jeans, a Zara, an American Eagle, and (talk about temptation) numerous, numerous warehouse-esque shoe stores… Yikes. To make my point clear: If I walk three blocks downtown, I’ll hit a second H&M. That’s how many clothing stores are in my area — they’ve run out of new ones just three blocks away. You just plain silly, Soho! I mean, look at this ridiculousness:

This map, courtesy of Google Maps, shows all of the clothing/accessory stores around my office. It's just plain silly, is what it is. If you look closely in the middle there, you can just about see "Scholastic Corporation."

But I digress. As always.

What I’m actually trying to say is, finding and successfully completing freelance work has become my new favorite hobby. I know very well I’ve been lucky so far; the two freelance jobs I currently hold kind of fell into my lap. One is for Scholastic (where I work full-time), and the other is for Simon & Schuster (where I had two wonderful internships). For Scholastic, I’ve begun freelance proofreading projects, which pay hourly. My projects for Simon are more writing-based, and they pay a set amount per project. Two completely different assignments, and I enjoy doing both. Here are three top-three lists (I love lists, and the number three, apparently) regarding what I’ve learned about freelance.

How to Find Freelance Projects

1. Keep in touch: Actually, I’m learning that this is the number-one rule in publishing altogether, let alone freelance. Your contacts at different companies can point you in the right direction, especially if you put yourself out there and let them know you’re looking.
2. Reach out: Sadly, no one is going to show up at your door with a manuscript, begging you to copyedit it. At least, not in my experience. (Although that would be awesome.) Send out your freelance resumé as often as you can, tailored to the individual needs of the job listings you find.
3. Take everything and anything: At least in the beginning. One freelance project successfully completed can lead to another, and likely will if you do high-quality work. Here’s a plus: People who have successful proofreaders/copy editors are likely to talk to their colleagues about it. Getting a reputation as someone who can turn around a project quickly, and successfully, might get some new projects to show up at your door — or, more likely, in your inbox.

How to Keep Freelance Projects

1. Prove your worth: Present yourself professionally, and don’t slack off. This goes for freelancing projects and internships, as well — each assignment is an opportunity to showcase your skills. If you like to write, volunteer to write copy for editors or marketing coordinators. Then write it well, and complete it on-time. If you can prove yourself to be someone worth working with, people will want to work with you. I hear the production editors around me talking about their freelancers all the time — they know who to trust with important projects, and who to use only in emergency situations. Be reliable.
2. Ask for feedback: After turning in your project, ask your hiring editor to provide you with comments on your work. What can you improve? What can you do to help make their job easier in the future? It might be something as small as using present tense instead of past tense, or bullet-pointing your lists a certain way. Asking for feedback may also save you if you turn in a project that isn’t what your hiring editors were looking for. If you ask for feedback, they know you’re willing to make some changes. This could be the difference between them dropping you altogether or giving you a second chance.
3. Keep your clips: I didn’t know what a “clip” was until I was asked for one during an interview. Basically, hold on to everything, everything, everything that you work on. Few hiring editors are willing to take a risk on someone who has nothing to show for their previous experiences. I even include projects I worked on during my internships in my clips package, such as plot outlines and readers reports. And, always ask for galleys or finished books of titles you assisted on, in any capacity – even if you never show these to anyone in a professional capacity, they can motivate you to keep adding to the pile.

Staying Smart while Freelancing

1. Do your research: This goes mostly for writing projects and pitches. If you’re pitching an idea to a magazine or a newspaper, and an editor likes your idea, he or she is going to need to confirm that your research is accurate and complete. Keep your writing honest and your notes organized.
2. Keep track of completed assignments: I’ve quickly learned to keep a log of how much money I’m owed and when/if I’ve been paid. Maybe this is a no-brainer for most people, but it’s definitely not for me. I tend to finish a project and forget about it, then wonder a month later if I ever received payment. It’s probably not a great thing to email an editor asking, “Oh hey, can you please add more work to your already-too-long to-do list and find out if I received a check for that project you’ve entirely moved on from?” Being a freelancer really is like running a one-woman business, and you have to be your own Accounting Department. Even when your dad is an accountant and helps you keep track of pay stubs and file your taxes, which brings me to…
3. Put money aside for taxes: Melissa Walker, freelancer and author extraordinaire, offered a seminar on freelancing at my college a year or so ago. The best piece of advice she offered was this: “Remember that some of it isn’t yours.” And by “it,” she means the money. When you complete a project for $600, you’re going to get a check for $600 — no taxes taken out. Melissa suggests putting aside 25% of that money (or 30%, to be very safe), in an account you can completely forget about until it’s time to fork it over to Uncle Sam. My accountant (read: Dad) tells me you probably don’t need to put aside this much, but I’m thinking: Why not? Heck, I’ll give myself a bonus at the end of the year if I have money left over. I probably deserve it — I’m pretty great.

Just your typical jam-packed, peak-hour train (Photo from DustandRust.com)

DO: Read. Duh. Too many books, too little time… but two hours a day on the train helps! I love borrowing books from work that I’ve been working with and reading them on the train. Even though I don’t necessarily have to read the books I help produce, doing so allows me to do my job much better. I’m able to better communicate with designers (who may have read the book) and editors (who have not only read the book, but are intimately involved with it to the extent of being in a relationship). Right now, I skew toward YA books and fun middle-grade series, like Allie Finkle (though I’m definitely partial to Allie because of her name! Well, that, and Allie’s spunky voice, courtesy of YA mastermind Meg Cabot).

DON’T: Comment on your neighbor’s reading choice. Well, sometimes this is OK I suppose. For instance, the occasional “I loved that book” is fine with me, as is that “I heard about that book. Are you enjoying it?” But I’ve had people give away plot twists and endings (really? REALLY?) while I’m only on Chapter One, and that’s just rude. RUDE, I tell ya! And don’t read over people’s shoulders, unless you’re commuting with them and you’ve both agreed to read the book at the same time, like my commuting buddy Andrew and I did with Catching Fire (and will likely do with the third book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy when it comes out next summer). Oh, and when someone is doing a crossword or Sudoku puzzle, please refrain from giving them the answers or telling them how quickly you were able to finish it that morning (this means you, smug man from Metropark!).

DO: Sleep. This editourist leaves for work at 6:40 AM and doesn’t return home until 7:15 PM, leaving time for dinner, some freelance work, maybe a little TV, and bed. I like to catch up on sleep on my way to work. New York Penn is the final stop, so it’s nearly impossible to sleep through it. Although, I do have fears of one day missing the stop and ending up in the Sunnyside train yard… but I’ll deal with that when it happens.

DON’T: Snore, drool excessively, or sleep on the passenger next to you’s shoulder. Sometimes you can’t help it. I understand. But please, please try.

DO: Play with your new Droid ERIS phone, because you have one! And by you, I mean me, and it’s been a life-changing experience. I don’t think it’s specifically the ERIS that’s changed my life, but having a phone with internet capabilities. Now I can use my train time to catch up on news, personal email, and reading Publishers Weekly (which has a pretty clean Mobile look, mind you!). I’m also loving the text application, because it shows up as an IM and logs my conversations. My days of accidently deleting important messages are gone!

DON’T: Play games or watch YouTube videos on your phone with the sound on. I’m begging you. I’m asking you to mute it partially because it’s just plain annoying and inconsiderate, but mostly because the sounds are totally going to distract me from whatever I’m trying to do. For instance, if I’m reading but I keep hearing “beep” and “chirrrrp” from your phone, I’m going to look over your shoulder to see what’s going on. I want you to clear the screen in Tetris! I want you to find a match in Bejeweled! I’m your biggest fan! But it’s incredibly creepy for me to be watching you play these games, so please, save this easily-distracted girl the trouble and mute it. Or, wear headphones. Preferably big, cool-looking ones. Big, cool-looking, orange ones (birthday present, hint hint!).

DO: Observe the strange breed that is the NJ Transit passenger. Man, what characters. NJ Transit passengers range from the Jewish pants salesman arguing on the phone with his mom about Shabbas dinner, to the most definitely not legal high-school boys coming home from the city drunk, to the 80-something man hitting on the conductor… the list goes on, and yes, these are all true examples. Andrew and I love people-watching on the train. It’s hard to avoid doing anyway, so you might as well enjoy it.

DON’T: Get caught observing the strange breed that is the NJ Transit passenger. You’ll get hit on, threatened, glared at, and made to feel generally uncomfortable. Probably because you’re being a total creeper and you deserve it.

DO: Zone out into space. One of my favorite ways to pass the time. Grab a window seat, make yourself comfortable, and let yourself tune out for a while. Why not?

DON’T: Zone out long enough to miss conductors’ instructions (or your station stop, for that matter). Here’s why not: As I’ve learned the hard way, you often have to walk forward or backward cars in order to make your stop. This is especially true during peak hours, and it changes depending on which train you catch. And here’s another why not: The conductor will often make a speech that sounds like this: “This train will not stop in [your stop]. I repeat, this train will not stop in [your stop]. This train will make all station stops except for [your stop]. That is, all stops except [your stop]. We will not stop in [your stop]. No [your stop].” When you ask the conductor why you’re passing the stop you want to get off at, he’s not going to think it’s funny. Trust me.

BONUS DON’T: Argue with the conductor. She does not have the ability to magically turn the train around. Really. Arguing is going to get you nowhere but further in the wrong direction. Accept your mistake, ask how to fix it, and laugh about it later. I did!

she’s…

she’s rambling.

She’s rambling to avoid starting up yet another blog that she gives up on in under a week. Because, truth be told, she hasn’t moved to the New York area yet. She’s still making that four-hour daily commute in and out of the city. And by the time she gets home to her parents’ house in central New Jersey, she’s exhausted. She drags herself to the computer to write a blog entry, but she ends up playing Farmville on Facebook for two hours instead. It’s all her mushy-gushy mind can handle.

She’s desperately looking for an apartment. And a roommate or three.

Also, she’s not an editor yet. She’s actually a production editor, which means she’s got a long way to go. But she’s working at one of the best, if not the best, children’s book publishers in the business. She’s got two successful children’s editorial internships under her belt and a world of writing experiences she’s looking to build upon. She may not be all that and a bag of potaytoe chips yet, but she will be. She is optimistic and idealistic (and a bit narcissistic), but above all else, she is:

The Editourist.