A kid's lucky star

At the right place at the right time!

Yesterday, I took this shot in the little park between Parliament and The Esplanade, on my way out of The Distillery.

It's only when I was cleaning up my photo files that I saw that I got more than I was looking for: the little kid's lucky star. Awww.

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(April 10) Book at the print shop

The book is done, but the stress is not over

Phew! Now, "all" I have to do is wait for the books from the print shop. And it is a very stressful time!

There's this little voice inside every author and publisher (and proofreader!) saying "Wait and see what kind of stupid typo you left in there!"

What can go wrong?
Aapart fromm typos and erors of atten... (will you look at that!), I've had all kinds of other problems at this stage. 

Once, the 5,000 copies of Toronto Fun Places I reordered (after having sold out 5,000 copies in a few months) were not properly glued (German binding I think they call it)! I had to recall them all from the bookstores and wait for properly glued books, loosing a bunch of summer sales in the process.

In the 5th edition of Toronto Fun Places, the photos on a couple of important pages, including "A word from the author" were badly printed, despite the fact that I approved perfect PDFs. (It's a case of changes made in one file used to print the proofs but not communicated to the print shop.) For this one, I got a credit off the next printing job!

Left is what I approved, right is what I got:

So you see why I can't relax just yet.

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(March 19) Series are fun!

Part One and Part Two, side by side

I've had this fantasy for a long time, of my guides displayed side by side in bookstores. Johanne Pepin did a great job of creating a cover which is different while keeping the trade mark colourful covers of books published by Word-of-Mouth Production.

Here they are, side by side: Toronto Urban Strolls 1 (in a new edition), with 28 Toronto strolls. And Toronto Urban Strolls 2, with 24 more Toronto walks. No overlap here! The strolls are different in each guide. All together, it means 52 Toronto strolls.

My work is done!

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(March 19) Uploading the guide to the printer!

About (finally) uploading the book 
to the printer

Yesterday night, I uploaded the full PDF version of Toronto Urban Strolls... for girlfriends (2) into my printer's deposit site.

This is the entire work of the last months. I sooooo deserve a treat!

How it works
They gave me a user name and a password to access it.

When we saved the inDesign file as a PDF, we went in the "Marks and Bleeds" menu and checked the box "All Printer's Marks", which automatically added crop marks, color bar and page information on each page of the PDF. Very cool and easy!

Cover 1-2 (front and back of a book) was 4.7 MB. 
Cover 3-4 (inside covers) was 1.6 MB.
The inside of the book: 
a large 300 MB document!

The ready-to-print cover looks like this:

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(March 8) About illustrations

Busy at the drawing table

This week, my illustrator Johanne Pepin sent me photos of herself in action, to show you how it looks on her side of the creation process. 

Once I approved her final sketch, she traced the final illustration. Yesterday, she was putting the last touch to the book cover illustration.

Today, we're scanning it and she can then take "the rest of the day" off!

It's been quite a sprint. But everything went smoothly.
Nothing beats working with cool people we respect!

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(March 7) About perseverance

It's all about perseverance

I'll get to the bottom of this!

A friend just posted this on Facebook.
It even looks like me!

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(March 6) About deadlines

Feeling of déjà-vu about deadlines...

A few years ago, the making of my Toronto Fun Places was taking much more time than planned. So much that I had time to ask my illustrator and partner in crime Johanne Pepin to make two drawings for me, to be  include in the guide. 

They featured my vision on how things should be by a certain time. And the reality. This time, I'm only two weeks behind schedule. Not so bad. But I still feel like the girl in that "reality" picture.

Come to think of it, I was doing my own little "How I see it" meme before its time. You know, the likes of this one:

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(March 3) A Criminal Minds moment

Felt like a (little) Criminal Minds moment!

You know how in Criminal Minds or CSI, they sometimes notice something in the background of a photo which they had overlooked before. Something that gives them a clue as to what really happened?

I just got one of these moments as I was selecting photos for my Danforth Stroll. (Two days ago, I went to Pizzeria Libretto with a friend to treat myself with their unique pizza.)

I had taken a shot to get a good view of the great lights hanging from the ceiling. In my next shot, I tried a horizontal version. 

As I was focusing my attention on the lamps, I was oblivious to people's reaction.

Oops! It is so not my intention to make people uncomfortable.
Now I can imagine them saying: "Look, she's taking our picture!"
"There she goes again!" 

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By the way, the food was amazing! Rocco's Salad (topped with a fried egg with yolk running over everything when you cut it) and pizza of the day. Yum!

(March 2) Evolution of a book cover

The book cover is seriously taking shape.

My illustrator sent me this new drawing. You can compare it to the first one she sent to me two weeks ago at (the end of this blog).

Johanne had a few questions. She suggested putting a food truck on the lower left side of the cover, by the tree.

I counter-suggested she draws a streetcar instead. (She doesn't know I'm not talking about food trucks.) We send each other images to clarify what we have in mind.

She wasn't sure about the garden chair above the tree. I suggested a scene or display from a designer or vintage store and sent her a bunch of photos I took in different stores.

It's a fun collaboration. (To be continued...)

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(Feb. 26) One word to describe

There's only one word...

... to describe how I feel now, regarding my self-imposed deadline of sending the material to the printer at the end of February 28th.

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(Feb. 24) About caffeine

About the role of caffeine in the making of a guide

Sometimes, there's lace in my latte!

In our last email exchange, I was telling my illustrator that everyone but me got a nasty cold in my family. I suggested that maybe the fact that my body is saturated with caffeine helped.

She told me that she has to thread carefully between enough coffee to get a buzz but not enough to prevent her hand from being steady. Good girl!

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(Feb. 23) About staying connected

About keeping in touch with our friends (anyway we can)

I was laying out the Roncesvalles Stroll, which I did with my friend Julie. As I was placing her photo, I was thinking about her and decided to post the page I'm working on on her Facebook wall.

Little nods, here and there, to say I still exist and to remind myself that I'll get my social life back once the guide is done!

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(Feb. 22) About the layout

About laying out the photos on the guide's pages.

For the last five days and the next two, I've been adding the photos to the texts in Toronto Urban Strolls 2. On one side, I have the full text of a stroll. On the other, a file with a selection of the best photos for the stroll.

1) First, I need to re-read the text to see when a photo would potentially be most useful, and mark the place with a number. (I write down what the photo should describe.)

2) I open the Best photos file to see the selection of the best photos I pre-selected (out of approx. 1,000 +) and note the photo # of potential choices for each number in the text (there's a system to my madness...).

3) I select all the potential photos and run them through iPhoto to enhance each one.

4) Then I "test-drive" them on the pages, selecting one photo per spot in the text according to horizontal or vertical options. It often takes a few trials.

When it goes from a text-ony page to a fully completed one, it's a great feeling!

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(Feb. 19) About mistakes

True story!

If you cut & paste around titles when working on the layout of your book, the titles:

Author's favourite TOP-3 STROLLS 
and 
TOP-3 STROLLS for shopping therapy

could become:  

Author's favourite therapy

Not good! When this starts to happen, it's time to take a break.

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(Feb. 14) About faith

A time for faith

Now is the time in the writing process when I need to hold on to my initial vision and have faith that all the pieces will soon fall into place.

This photo, taken yesterday on Queen East on my way home, illustrates perfectly my current state of mind: 

There's light at the end of the tunnel but exterior influences are not pointing in that direction!

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(Feb. 12) Last minute changes

Do you think she'll still want to work with me?

The quickest way for me to pass on info about addition of names on the maps is to scribble over a photocopy of them, take a photo with my iphone and email it to my illustrator with the details.  

Not the most elegant method, I agree...

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(Feb. 12) Last chance to improve on the maps!

About the maps

Oops! My illustrator Johanne Pepin just emailed me these pictures of her colouring the maps.

Now is my last chance to give her additional street names to add to the maps before she handwrites them on the originals (an aesthetic choice, but we're scanning the originals before, just in case).

Mental note: double check with Johanne that we ARE indeed scanning the originals before she writes on them!!!

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(Feb. 10) Creating a book cover

About the creation of a book cover

A few weeks ago, I sent my illustrator Johanne Pepin a DVD filled with photos of places I've visited for Toronto Urban Strolls 2.

She sat on it, thought about it while finishing other contracts and this week, was ready to send me a first rough draft. 

Now, we're engaging in a fun back and forth dialog to achieve the best result, using her eye to create a balanced composition and my knowledge of what would most appeal to my readers.

Getting there!

Orange was the colour popping out on the cover of the first Toronto Urban Strolls. This time, we're going for a shocking pink. The goal here is to make sure buyers won't confuse Toronto Urban Strolls 1 (28 walks) with Toronto Urban Strolls 2 (with 24 additional walks).

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(Feb. 05) Tips about working in cafés The Making of a guide

Working in cafés

A friend of mine who knows I prefer to work in cafés just sent to me this article which explains well the benefits I get from working in cafés. Why you should work from a coffee shop, even when you have an office by Wesley Verhoeve, Jan 25, 2013 on website fastcompany.com.

I agree with everything Wesley says in her article! I'd add the following tips:
• Don't monopolize a table for four!
• Don't spread all over a table. (Be ready to share the space with someone if they ask. When they do, my experience is they never stay long.)
• Make sure the staff sees you leave a tip. When they're really busy, they might not notice. You don't want to risk passing for a big leech!

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(Feb. 3) Knowing when it's good enough

About letting go
Over the years, I've learned one thing a writer needs to develop, the ability to know when to let go. A book, an article, a blog could always be better, but there's also such a thing as dead-lines! 

Yesterday, I went on Ossington Avenue to double-check some info and try one last restaurant before wrapping up my Ossington Effervescent Vibe Stroll... and I came across a graffiti alley which I had totally missed! (It's in the lane just west of Ossington, north of Queen Street West.)

It was so impressive I decided to redo my circuit to include it. When this happens, I can't help to think about all the other great spots I must be missing. It drives me nuts, until I remember the above mentioned lesson. (Note to ego: we're not writing a novel here!)

What about the last restaurant I tried? 
Tiny Hawker Bar (164 Ossington, next to laid-back Ideal Coffee), the one with the funny sign reading: Prove that you love me and buy the next round. I tasted their intriguing Son-in-law eggs. Delish!!! They're soft-boiled, then fried and laid on a special marmalade. (Love my job!)

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