The Effects of Full Moons on Lulu.com

Okay, so it's one full moon, and it most likely has nothing to do with my problems with Lulu.com. But ARGH! anyway.

I have been busting my butt, straining my eyes, wracking my brain, beating my head against the wall and all the other cliched things that people do out of frustration for the past three weeks. Issue 5 of Epitaphs is done. I finished designing it, edited it, proofed it, redid the photos a few times, adjusted things, saved and resaved. Taught myself all sorts of tricks I hope I will remember for the next issue. Crazy me, I thought it would be smooth sailing from here on. But no. No no no. Uploading PDFs, embedding fonts, resizing, making things right, making things more right ... oh my gosh the list goes on ... is taking forever and driving me nuts!

I am no techie, my friends. I glean what I can from people and then search like hell all over the Internet to teach myself how things work. My gosh, I searched and searched until I located Swift Publisher (which I do recommend for the non designers like myself). Then I worked my way through that software, figuring it out along the way. Then I researched Lulu.com. Decided to go with it, and struggled through that learning process. After THINKING I had loaded everything properly, I ordered my first "proof" copy. I waited impatiently for it to arrive. Only to find that I had loaded it IMPROPERLY and then paid $10 for two sheets of paper with my cover on it!

I was so proud of myself for finishing the magazine and having it available in the month I said it would be (and even the year, too!). Things aren't perfect, and I'm still working through them. Like links for the subscribers, breaking the news to subscribers that the magazine went bankrupt and has no money to send them printed issues anymore. (But, hey, they are receiving one free electronic issue for every paid for issue they have yet to receive, and that's a pretty sweet deal.) Some people are happy with the situation (hey, neither am I!), but most have been great about it and very understanding. Let's say that my dream of being able to quit my day job to do Epitaphs Magazine has blown away like so much smoke from the neighbors burning leaves. Oh, well. I'll keep doing Epitaphs until I can't do it no more. I'm stubborn like that.

I'm a little distracted right now. Bella is sick with a nasty head cold. She's my priority. And I'm taking off work to take care of her tomorrow, so Daddy's off night duty. Gotta run.

M.