Mother's Day 2000

2000

May 16, 2000

I worked out at the gym - 24 Hour Fitness - I signed up this week. I have a trainer. And we did "wake up" those big muscles. Oh yes. We did.
My younger son gets to go too. A 3-year contract (try getting out of that one) and about 10-12 sessions with a trainer. He got serious about weight training - so I did.
Even went out and got a weight bench. And a new barbell (he took over mine).
Getting ready for my date.
Just in case I want to bench press Fabio!
As a special present, my ISP provider played hooky. Of course, they claim it was the phone company's fault. The phone company blames them. I think it's high time the Public Utilities Commission took over watch-dogging the ISP providers.
And the web hosting.
The public is being taken for a ride.
I ran into "authentication failure" and "Error resolving domain name". This means the phone lines were busy.
But my older son promised me I would have counters in a day or two - all I wanted for Mother's day.
My younger son laid around on the couch with me (we argue over space a lot when we do this) and watched "Three Kings" and the Harrison Ford movie about the plane crash. The name escapes me. I've been a fan of his since Star Wars. I love Six Days and Seven Nights. Hilarious. I bought that tape. Goes with Meet Joe Black and You've Got Mail. Chick Flicks.
Friday, I had another piece of great news.
Made my weekend.
Really did!
Thursday - my novel "Jettison" was to be on the presses - and Monday I was to have, at long last, about 3 cases of the 20,000 copies being pressed. (I had made 40,000 covers earlier).
I can't submit to Amazon.com without 1-3 copies.
I can't submit to Ingram for distribution without 4 complementary copies for them.
I can't complete my commercial page until the book is ready to be shipped.
I can't send copies to relatives.
I can't send complementary copies to RT and RWA conventions for promotion.
I am hung until I have those copies.
Well, I don't have them!
Seems that, when they were binding the books, the covers were cracking.... which means the ink coating breaks and you can see white through the crease.
Sloppy.
I've never had that happen. Nor did I expect it to happen. I used, after all, a pretty standard paper stock and 4-color art. The fifth color is only on the front (with a die strike and metal foil). It is a pretty, professional, impressive looking cover.
So they tell me.
My account person had gone home. The assistant was frantically calling me.
They "took it off the presses quickly". I "didn't loose too many covers". They won't say how many.
They will.
Neither of those remarks make me feel very good.
It's now Monday, and I am waiting to hear what went wrong. Their "QA people are on it". Which means a bunch of people are standing around staring at the cover and trying to figure out how to fix the job.
Scoring has been mentioned. (That's OK by me.) Now they say they are going to laminate the covers - because it's the paper that's the problem. Bad batch.
I've done over 100,000 user manuals - same printer. 4-color covers. Wrap-around color and coatings. Never ran into this one!
Had to be my job.
Had to be my baby.
Of course!