On keeping busy

Lately, I've been having a hard time getting really sucked into the books I've been reading.  That's sort of my excuse for not posting a lot lately.  I've liked the books I've been reading, but nothing I read had me excited the way some of the BFYA books did.  Maybe it's because I'm coming off a "reading high," as several of the BFYA feedback teens gushed, when talking about their favorite books.  But if that's the case, then I tend to have the opposite reaction.  If I read something I love love loved, it is unlikely that will make me more likely to go crazy over the following book.  The exact opposite will happen.  I will be possible hypercritical of the next book I read, making perhaps unrealistic comparisons to the first.  That said, I am super excited to read the books I've selected for today and tomorrow: Emily Horner's YA debut A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend (pretty sure I will love it because it sounded great in the NYTimes book review and it was blurbed by Steve Kluger AND Horner is librarian) and The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams (which has a completely gorgeous cover -- and the author has a short story in the Atlantic Fiction issue!).

But I have something else taking up a good chunk of my mental space.  I'm closing in on beginning querying for my new manuscript.  There's only one thing left to do, and it is time-consuming and exhausting, but it's the only thing that gets the job done.  I read the entire book out loud.  It is 240 pages.  I read a 50 page chunk this morning, amazed 1. that I could read 50 pages without needing a glass of water, and 2. that there are still some ridiculous typos.  Granted, this is the only way I've found to catch them.  This manuscript has been read by several people and myself multiple times, and I've still found a couple genuine typos (like a missing quotation mark, misspelling of a character name)!  Though most of the little notes I've made were more along the lines of "change this word," or "be consistent with how I spell anti-war."  Fifty pages down, only 140 something to go.  Sheesh!  Luckily, I've got something to break up intimate reading performance, which my cat Lilly is, I'm sure, confused by: tons of reading!

Hopefully will be back to share more thoughts on Emily Horner book.  For now: lunch!