Bearlodge Writers

The second printing of Standing Witness: Devils Tower National Monument, A History, revised, is available.

Books:

Standing Witness: Devils Tower National Monument, A History; National Park Service, 2008.

Periodicals and Anthologies:

Wyoming Paintbrush, WyoPoets, 2007
Survivor’s Review, online journal, 2007

In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge: Writings from the Black Hills, Patricia Frolander, editor; Many Kites Press, 2006
The Sundance Times, Sundance, Wyoming, April 2004
Moorcroft Leader, Moorcroft, Wyoming, April 2004
Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West, Houghton Mifflin, 2004
Seasons of Wyoming, WyoPoets, 2002
Woven on the Wind: Women Write About Friendship in the Sagebrush West, Houghton Mifflin, 2001
Wyoming: Prairies, Peaks and Skies, WyoPoets, 1998
Leaning Into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West, Houghton Mifflin, 1997
Wyoming Journeys, WyoPoets, 1995
If You Would Love Wyoming, WyoPoets, 1993
Legends, ARTCORE, 1993

The (Re)Birthing of a Book

As I type this essay, I have three laptops in my office, all in various stages of use, in an attempt to make corrections to my first book for its second printing.

The book—Standing Witness: Devils Tower National Monument, A History, released in May, 2008, by the National Park Service (NPS)—has been an exercise in patience and perseverance. Originally scheduled for September, 2006, for the monument’s centennial celebration, the book’s printing date was set back at least five times. The most disappointing delay came with the first shipment of books on February 21, 2008. While I was excited to see an actual book with my name on the front, the product had some major problems. The cover scuffed and scarred easily, and the year of publication was incorrect—and in the wrong place.

The Tower staff involved with the book project agreed with my concerns, and moved quickly to fix the problems. The printer, chosen by the Government Printing Office, thought they could correct the errors. The books were returned; a new copyright page and cover were produced, and bound to the book bodies.

That print run was no better than the first. The publication date was correct, but the cover ink smeared, scraped, and scarred. The cover photo color palette printed gray on some books, brown on others, and green on some, giving an uneven appearance between any two books set side by side.

A small percentage of these books were kept to be given as complimentary copies; the rest were to be destroyed, giving new urgency to preparing a file edited and ready for a second edition to be produced by a newly-selected professional printer.

There were several reasons the original NPS book designer was not doing the work this time around, with lack of funding and our time schedule at the top of the list. The park service passed responsibility to the Devils Tower Natural History Association, whose business manager, Linda, would be my new project liaison. She wanted all typos and inaccuracies in the text corrected (just when did 2.1 meters morph into 21 feet?), and a new manuscript sent to a printer she trusted to create a satisfactory product. I offered to make the changes—it was my name on the cover, after all, and Linda’s work load did not comfortably allow for additional assignments.

I began Plan A. Being fairly proficient in Microsoft Word (the program I used to create the original book manuscript) I assumed I could follow a process similar to the one Bearlodge Writers (my local writers’ group) had used when we published an anthology in 2006. I would make edits and do the page setup in Word, then create a PDF (portable document format) file for the printer.

Only after beginning the process did I realize how truly monumental (sorry!) and ambitious it would be. For starters, I had to maintain each page with the original number of lines of text; we simply could not alter the existing index. The basic book design—with its headers, footers, design text, fonts, styles, and decorative lines—was impossible to maintain in Word. Fonts that should have been the same size weren’t; I would fix one thing, only to find it threw something else off kilter.

Time for Plan B. I began to edit the PDF book layout file the NPS sent.

- download trial version of the Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended program (allows user to manipulate and edit a PDF file

- laptop overheats during download

- pause download, cool laptop, resume download (several times throughout day)

- download complete, one day and evening later

- attempt to acquire ingredients essential for proper usage of trial program

- spend a few days trying to edit with new program (aka wrestling words blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back)

Plan C: Edit the INDD (Adobe InDesign document) file from NPS, source file for the PDF book layout file

- INDD file, with necessary data files (images, fonts, etc.) too large to email

- CD with files to be hand-delivered from park

- download trial version of Adobe InDesign program (used to create INDD file)

- commandeer husband’s laptop (which doesn’t overheat) for program download

- get Internet connection working with husband’s laptop

- download program (takes seven hours)

- find out NPS INDD file is Mac version, not Windows compatible

(By this time, I truly believed the book process to be as one friend described it: “This is like having a baby, and then pushing the baby back up the birth canal for do-overs.” Yes, I am feeling the pain.)

- borrow daughter’s Apple laptop

- get Internet connection working with Apple laptop

- back to free trial download page, start Mac version download at bedtime

- in morning, discover Internet server went offline to make an upgrade to their system

- restart program download, contemplate change in career

- Mac laptop times out before download complete

- reconnect husband’s laptop, restart download, contemplate sharp objects

- download complete (takes seven hours)

- transfer program file to Mac laptop—file too large for CD or my puny flash drive

- find four-gigabyte flash drive on sale (at nearest office supply store—85 miles away)

- both computers recognize flash drive (big whoopee!)

- unfamiliarity with Mac file system slows data transfer from flash drive

- open INDD file on Mac laptop; moment of elation when book pages appear on screen

- moment of total dismay at font error message

- unfamiliarity with Mac file system and InDesign program slows transfer of files necessary to properly format INDD file

- INDD formatted, opens correctly, looks as it should

- begin edits by trial and error, consulting help menu and online message boards

- figure out text boxes, master pages, and global commands

- add pages and additional text

At long last I have worked my way down the list of necessary changes to the manuscript. What I had naively estimated would take two, maybe three, days turned into weeks of worry, work, and wonder—thanks to the marvels and mishaps of technology. I’ve learned, again, that sometimes I need to ask more questions (or ask better questions?) at the outset of a project.

Now, one minor adjustment to the margins and this baby is done. . . .

Um, not quite. After editing the INDD file, saving as a PDF, and sending that to Linda to proof, I took a deep breath—finally finished!—and spent the next month and a half away from home doing some emergency grandbaby-sitting. Linda, meanwhile, found a few typos I missed, and unearthed an email from NPS I had never seen, which detailed some additions to the index that needed to be made.

Back to the Apple laptop. Unfortunately, my trial program had expired. After I spent a few days trying to re-download the trial version with a different email address, etc., it became clear I either needed to buy the program (expensive!), or find a different Apple computer to use for the download.

I made several calls, but borrowing a computer is a bit different than asking for a cup of sugar. Any computer I used would be tied up for at least two days—one day for the software download, and one day to make the edits and create a new PDF. I finally remembered that a family friend, who is a graphic artist, used Mac products.

For one brief moment, the clouds parted and light fell upon us. Yes, she had a Mac, and lo and behold, she even had the InDesign program. However, she couldn’t open my INDD file—it was created from a newer version of InDesign. She couldn’t update or download a trial version of the newer edition, as her computer didn’t have the necessary components or memory allotment. And the download page for a version in between what she had and what I needed defaulted to the latest and greatest. She does, however, have a friend, who uses Mac design software, and might have a more current version of the program. . . .

The friend of a friend thing didn’t work out, but something better came along. After a few phone calls, I was given permission to use the Mac computer lab at a state university thirty miles away. The graphic artist, who had made the arrangements, got me settled at a computer, and in less than two hours I completed the remaining corrections. Back home, copy files to a CD, and arrange CD delivery to Linda at the Tower.

Patience. Perseverance. And a whole lot of prayer.

The second, revised edition of Standing Witness: Devils Tower National Monument, A History, is now available.

Jeanne Rogers has worked at various jobs but likes writing best.

Currently Reading:

Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson

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Erma Bombeck