June 15, 2009

More on an earlier story

My parent’s anniversary party is coming up in a week, though their day is officially Thursday.  I tip my hat to them for their nearly 60 years together.

My sister Kim,  who celebrates a birthday today, has been putting in some late nights getting the layout done for Mom and Dad’s anniversary book, a project I wrote about earlier. It was intended to be a simple story about their growing up years, their courtship, marriage and children.

Excuse me, nothing in life is simple, especially for them having  had five children, adopting one, and operating a farm.  Just as that’s complex, so too is  the family history book. It  includes stories, written by each of us  girls, about our partners and children, and grandchildren [for two of my sisters who have them]. The stories are also about who we are and what we have been doing. There’s also recollections from my sisters, my brother and me, of  our growing up years,  and anecdotes from some of the grandchildren too.  Since I have edited only one  sister’s submissions, beyond our parents’ pages, I expect there will be great entertainment as well as touching moments within the completed book.

It’s not only the text that makes the book complex, but the layout with photos and borders. Having worked on the editing and writing,  but never in graphic design, I was glad to have the  layout  project in Kim’s hands. She has experience in desktop publishing. I look forward to seeing the results of this multiple-step project.

Mom has read the manuscript so many times that she almost knows it by heart. As exciting as it’s been for my parents, I think they will likely be glad to see the project done, with a copy to show for all their efforts, and copies of the book or CD in the hands of children and grandchildren. For family members who have never been involved in such a project before, it’s heady stuff.

I’ll be off to  Write!Canada in Guelph, Ontario, later this week to learn more about the complexity of editing other people’s work and to consider what else I might write beyond my present projects. More on the anniversary and conference in upcoming posts.