Leaves

A gray tarp stretches between my shed and two nearby trees. Our favorite outdoor chairs rest in the shade of that trap and Ginny and I often sit there watching various species of birds come to feeder and fountain.

That is one of our favorite places for morning coffee and conversation.

Fall leaves accumulate on the tarp creating pleasing patterns overhead. These photos are taken from the underside:

But, this week I focus on a different kind of leaves—the leaves and pages of my fire history book. Yes, the printed front and back of each leaf of a book make two pages. Hence the expression “turning over a new leaf”.

I think the printing press runs large sheets of paper through and inks all the odd numbered pages on one side, and all the even numbered pages on the opposite side. Then some machine folds and cuts the large sheets into leaves which are correlated into pages in order. Ideally, the odd numbered pages will always be on the right as you face the book.

This week, my job shifts from writer to editor and enditor—the last person to handle a book manuscript before it goes to the printer.

Here’s a photo of the proof copy of Heroes All with some of my essential tools for the job: coffee mug with my publishing logo (www.bluefishbooks.info ); tobacco pouch, pipe and matches; dictionary and style manual; and lots of sharp red pencils.

I’ll check facts and dates and pagination and captions and fonts—and I’ll worry that I missed something obvious which I won’t see till the final print edition comes out..

Heroes All tells the history of Jacksonville from the viewpoint of how many times the place burned down, or would have burned down if not for the actions of firefighters.

It begins in 1852 when volunteer firefighters got out their guns and shot an arsonist off the roof of a hotel; and the book traces the development of firefighting men, women and equipment through to the rescue of a puppy from the Humane Society Shelter fire earlier this year when hundreds of other dogs and cats burned locked in their cages.

But mostly my book focuses on acts of courage, bravery and honor in which Jacksonville firefighters risked their own lives to rescue others.

Oddly enough, one of the hardest things about writing this book has been locating records of the daily acts of heroism by local firefighters—because they don’t keep track themselves. They are not boastful. After horrendous explosions and fire with buildings falling over their heads, the firefighters usually say something like, “Just doing my job. All I do is put the wet stuff on the hot stuff”.

Well, my job this week is proofing the leaves of 298 pages so that I can tell their story as well as I possibly can.

After that, I’ll admire the autumn leaves in our backyard.