Proofs.

Tonight, I have been reading the proofs of my forthcoming book.

(NOTE: There is just no way to say the above that doesn't sound at least a little bit braggy, but there you have it. It's the truth. I am. I am reading the proofs of my forthcoming book.)

Like writing the bio that will appear in said book, proofreading the book is a surreal experience. What, exactly, are you supposed to say in a bio? If you compare your potential biography to, say, the bios appearing in other people's second books, you are liable to run into facts such as these: other people have had more notable honors than you have had. Other people have published more. Other people blah blah blah why are you (am I) looking at other people's books anyway?

Nevertheless: the petite status of one's own resume, as the raw material for said bio, stands, regardless of what else one is reading.

This is where it's easy to allow distractions to intervene. I won't enumerate, except to say that I have not yet written the bio, but I have reread a certain young adult series in which good triumphs over evil in the wizarding world. And so forth.

Similarly, the proofs: a person can range far, far afield into hitherto unknown realms of anxiousness whilst looking at proofs. Such as: how it would be easy to make mistakes and miss things. How the font of the title may or may not be your favorite, and in a related matter, how to phrase this issue to the editor. And general questions about the worthiness of the poems and of one's own worthiness, vis a vis the wizarding, I mean poetic, world. And so forth.

Well, tonight, after watching Golden State assert itself rather emphatically in the fourth quarter, I began again with the proofreading. I found a missing poem and a missing couplet and a few other more minor matters. I set aside the anxious mental spinning, and I got it done. I'll double check my proofreading tomorrow and send the notes back to my editor. Also, I will commit to my bio, thin resume be damned. And just like that, the forthcoming book's coming forth will have gotten just a little bit more real.