The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us.
Mary Oliver
It was a long day yesterday, but I got it done: all 518 pages of my 2017 blog book formatted and the book itself submitted for review. Why? Aside from simply keeping the writing I do here every morning, which ranges from the ordinary to something with more substance, within those pages are springboards for writing projects. It’s a lot easier to mine them in a hard copy I can flag and make notes in than in electronic archives.
Also, I’m creating books for my granddaughter. I believe these ordinary words I tap out day after day might mean something one day to her one day. (In fact, when she was here recently she was delighted with the pile of blog books, even more so when she realized she was in them. Her first question: “Can I have them?” Books and words are in our DNA, after all.)
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Today, ladies bible study (hurray!) and picking up my BFF from the airport (double and triple hurray! I’ve missed her.)
Gerry took the outdoor Christmas lights down yesterday so I suppose that’s my cue to put the non-traditional trees away. Or maybe I’ll leave them up just a little while longer; we’re still in one of the dark months after all, and the trees are just so lovely. (The non-tradition continues as I usually put Christmas away on Boxing Day!)
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Technical note for bloggers. I use Blog2Print to extract the posts for the year into PDF format. I can, and did for the 2008 through 2015 books, use the PDF as is to create the books. I took more time with formatting the 2016 and 2017 books (by converting the PDF to a .docx file, doing the work, and then converting it back to a PDF). The last step is to upload the PDF to CreateSpace, design the cover, and submit it for review. Once it’s been approved, I’m able to order copies. These books are for personal use only so I don’t make them available on any distribution channels.
