Editing and proofreading and writing and so on…

Last week Mama Jo asked me if I could work on a rush proofreading job for the Cory Aquino tribute book they wanted to publish this week. The original deal was only 45 pages, so of course I said yes (plus the fact that I can’t say no to Mama Jo). As it turned out, the 45-page manuscript only contained around 75% of all the articles the editor wanted in the volume. Also, the remaining 25% were still with the contributors and needed to be layouted before I could proofread them. To cut the story short, we weren’t able to meet this week’s deadline. I finished a couple more essays for the book, but Mama Jo said there were still a few that she’s trying to get from other writers.

In between the project, I also said yes to proofreading a book on Copyright Law over the long weekend. I am no expert in law, which is why the manuscript gave me a metaphorical nosebleed, with all its legal terms and what-not. I must admit though that I learned a lot about copyright (and copyleft) from the book, and am therefore very grateful to be able to work on it.

And earlier, Mama Jo texted me to ask if I could work on another rush manuscript. I forgot the topic of the book, but she said the author wanted a second proofreading done to check for final errors. So tomorrow I’ll be dropping by Anvil again to get the manuscript and hand over the essays from the Cory Aquino book, which was my first project.

But it doesn’t end there. My former boss’ mom just passed away and she had to take an emergency leave and fly to Davao for the wake. She asked Rho-anne to ask me to write the press releases while she was gone. Why she didn’t leave that assignment to her new assistant, I wouldn’t (and wouldn’t want to) know. Nevertheless, I said yes to the job, one, because she is my former boss and I owe a lot of my experience in events management and people relations to her, and two, because I could use the additional income.

So I finished the first press release she asked me to do and sent it to her for approval, and right now I’m working on the Martial Law feature article which I hope to submit by the end of this week. I also need to write an article in time for Ramadan, and whatever else they assign me to write. I don’t really mind; writing perks me up in ways that coffee never can.

It’s funny how I left Anvil so that I can rest, and then the projects I get are almost all from Anvil still. My sister even commented once at the fact that it seemed as if I was still working for the company, me going there at least once a week to bring an edited manuscript, or get a new unedited one. I don’t mind though; truth be told, I like it better this way. I get to do what I love, and I get to earn from it too. Plus I can wake up as late as I want, and sleep as late as my body allows me to.

And yes. Writing for Jescom has been wonderful too. As soon as Bi gives the go-signal for my next script (if ever Pauline approves of it), I’ll be working on that too. I’m pretty sure I can balance my time to work on these projects. After all, Anvil trained me how to multi-task. This ought to be child’s stuff for me.

I hope.