The copyedited manuscript of Freedom's Sisters arrived today. I sat down with it this evening and discovered a couple of things:

1. Going over a copyedited manuscript makes me desperately want to snack on something. Ideally something crunchy. If I somehow could have arranged for an endless supply of freshly roasted poultry skin to appear at my elbow, I think that would have been just about perfect. My sister's latkes would've been okay, too.

2. I was wildly and embarrassingly inconsistent with my capitalizations.

3. It's amazing how much more irate the queries sound when the copyeditor types them all up in a ten-page document at the beginning, rather than having to use the post-it-note type thingies I've seen before.

From kristine_smith

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don?t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what?s actually next to you.

"I was facing the door, holding the letter in my right hand." Freedom's Apprentice by Naomi Kritzer.

I had my own books out because of the copyedited manuscript. They're not normally on my desk.

Also on my desk is Freedom's Gate, two children's books, and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.