Update about school

So I haven't really talked about how things are going with my course for a while, mostly because everything that is happening is really internal issues. BUT last week we did get the first couple of actual illustrations from our illustrator, Julie for The Day Boy and The Night Girl - you can see the front cover illustration over here. The production team is currently working on cover designs using those illustrations, which is really fun. We also hit our minimum crowdfunding goal for Ah Dinnae Ken, which is really awesome - while we are of course hoping to be able to hit our overall goal, just hitting our minimum goal means we are going to be able to basically double our print run. 

Overall, though it is both challenging and stressful, school is still going quite well - I've got a really great team for the live projects, which is helping making them fun even as they are busy!

It was really sunny the other day, so some of us ended up on the front steps during our lunch break (if you are wondering why there are so many girls - Jonny is actually the only guy in our 18-person team). 

(Top, left) Sophie, Mairi, me, Annemarie, Camille, Kate (Bottom, left) Maya and Giulia

Real Life (Update)

So last Thursday marked the end of a lovely, if unproductive, two weeks of watching a lot of movies, reading a lot of books, and hanging out with friends (some highlights include the day I did not see a single other human being, the day Melissa and Alix and I had a movie night - watching The Cabin in the Woods, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Bon Cop, Bad, Cop - going to the National Museum of Scotland with Eve, Becky, Melissa, and Alix before going back to Melissa's place for pancakes, where Leanne joined us...

Becky's penguin was enjoying the catapult game

And Alix was giving me sass

... and Melissa, Alix and I getting Starbucks, going shopping, and then having a girls night, complete with wine, facemasks, and painting our nails).

Alix and I split a pair of cool earrings from H&M (my necklace is also from H&M)

Nails! (and wine!)

Face masks ;P

I also had to scrape out the freezer, which was starting to resemble more a glacier than a freezer. David walked into the kitchen when I was scraping ice out onto a towel with a spoon and he just looked at me and asked if I really missed Canada that much.

*just like home*

Thursday was just a quick meeting in which we learned which live publishing projects we would be working on this year. We were divided into two groups, one of which will be coming in all day Tuesday and one of which will be coming in all day Wednesday (my group). I volunteered to be co-Project Manager of my group, so, along with Camille, I will be in charge of managing all of the departments and signing off on any major decisions. While I am kind of nervous, I am also rather excited.

The projects which we are doing were chosen out of all the publishing projects that were proposed (mine was a reprint of The Turn of the Screw, which was not chosen) the board of Merchiston Publishing chose four to go ahead with, though not all four will necessarily end up being published, depending of course on budget and time. Both the groups and the books for each group were assigned, and then we decided on roles. First we choice the project manager, two for each group. Then people choose which department they wanted to be in (they could be in multiple departments but had to also pick their primary department that would take their priority). Camille and I also had to join depts so I joined production (which will include design and digital). The departments were: editorial, production, marketing, finance, and rights. Then people volunteered to be department heads, and we ended up having to vote on the dept heads for editorial and prod.

View of the courtyard (finally no scaffolding in way of the view)

Friday we received our grades for two of our final three assessments from last term (passed both, whoo!). We then attended a rather mind-numbing orientations for both our dissertation and placement modules. I am quite excited for both modules, though our dissertations don't actually start until next trimester, I tentatively am thinking of writing on censorship in YA literature through parents, schools, and publishers (this will need to be better thought out, obviously, and I need to pick a country to focus on).

Friday night I ended up making gingersnaps at like midnight, which was fine, because I also FaceTimed with Logan, Connie, and Brad for three hours. It was Logan's birthday Saturday (happy 21st bro!) so Connie and Brad had gone down for the weekend - Logan and Dad had been skiing that day, so I chatted with them while dinner was cooking, all the way through to dessert (and my final batch of cookies).

Yup. He's an adult.

Gingersnaps (this recipe comes to me from Connie, who got it from Brenda).

3/4 c. of butter
2 c. sugar

Cream together

2 well beaten eggs
1/2 c. molasses
2 tsp. vinegar

Stir in

3 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2-3 tsp. ginger (I go for the full three but I'm a big fan of spicy gingersnaps)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

Sift and add

Mix ingredients until blended. Form dough into 3/4" balls. Roll in sugar. Bake on a greased cookie sheet (or on parchment paper) about 12 min.

In the UK, they don't typical measure using cups, tsp, tbsp, etc. Instead, they measure everything by weight. While there is a scale that came with my kitchen, I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of converting all my cookie recipes into weight, so I went and bought myself a set of cups and tsp/tbsp measuring spoons. However, when I opened the butter, instead of markers indicating a cup, there were ticks for 50g. *sigh* So I guessed. They also call baking soda bicarbonate of soda and you can't get it at a lot of the smaller grocery stories, which, considering that those are mainly were I shop, caused me to think that you just couldn't get baking soda in the UK. I still complain about it a lot.

Saturday I was supposed to go to the Writers Museum with Kate, but it was raining, so we decided to postpone. I had a lot of people over for Burns Night that night - more on that on my next post.

Yesterday was my first official day of classes, which involved a class for Publishing in Practice (the module in which we are publishing the real live books) which was mostly talking about finances, followed by the Placement module tutorial, in which we just answered any questions we had left about our placements. So Monday I have PIP from 2-3 every fortnight, and then Placement and Dissertation modules from 3-5, on a rotating schedule (so next week on Monday, we will not have PIP, but will then have the Dissertation tutorial). Tuesday I do not have classes, then Wednesday we are in from 9-5, with a board meeting at 10, working on our publishing project. Thursday I have my optional module, Interactive Media, from 10-1. And no classes Friday. So a pretty awesome chill schedule. I have decided not to try for a part time job this semester however, both because it is better to have a more flexible schedule for the placement, and also because I am a Project Manager which will involve more time and responsibility.

So for our placement module, our placement is about ten days, though it can be more or less, and involves self-assessment, making learning goals, and an assessment by our supervisor wherever we go for placement, which we get to choose off a list on the MSc Pub page if you want to check it out. I'm not quite sure what we will be covering for the class on the placement, nor the one for the dissertation, and I haven't had my Interactive Media class yet, so I will keep you updated on all of that!

My hair is getting longer and longer! Also £1 necklace FTW

Really Putting the "Super Freaking Slow" in "Snail Mail"

On November 16th, Lorraine let me know that she had mailed my Hanukah present. By the time I moved out of my old flat on December 1st, I had yet to receive it, so I let my former roommates know to keep an eye out for it. Through December I sent them a couple more messages, and even went to the post office to see what was taking such a long time. I had sent my mother a package, but she had received it in just over a week, so I was quite concerned for my Hanukah present. By the time I got back from Christmas break, I was fairly resigned to the idea that the postal system had lost it, to my great sadness. However, on the 14th I got a message from my former roommates - something had arrived in the mail for me. Excited, I went over to find two issues of a Canadian publishing magazine that I had also thought lost in the mail. With hope renewed that  the package was on its way, I went back home... and two hours later received another message - there was something else now at the flat for me! 

Two days shy of two whole months, my Hanukah package had arrived. 

It was so nicely wrapped I almost didn't want to open it...

The rules for our Hanukah presents is that they have to be handmade (this year, my dad helped me make a cutting board for Lorraine). The chocolates were obviously just a bonus (perhaps because we usually play for chocolate when we play with the dreidel on Hanukah?)

A gorgeous modified books, containing the covers and first pages from a number of different literary works.

There was also some of the original book left in at the end.

A gorgeous present from a wonderful godmother :)

Hopefully this means my christmas package from my dad has been similarly delayed - and for those wishing to send me gifts in the future, it might be a better idea to just order them off a UK site and have them sent to me from inside the country, as the snail mail between the UK and Canada seems to be much faster in one direction than the other.

Interlude the Second

I'm still editing and going through my pictures from Paris, plus on my trip there I realized I really don't know a lot of French history, so I've been reading a lot about it. But, in the meantime, a preview via the last couple of pictures I've put on instagram! Not all of them are from Paris, but they are all pretty awesome ;)

Now this one is from Paris... more specifically the Louve. I was really impressed when I was looking back over my pictures how well this one ended up lining up, considering that I don't think I was trying to get it to at all.

This one is of course back in London, at the Tower Bridge.

And back to Paris. I have no idea why, but there was a giant gold ball in the middle of a pond.

I'm guessing this one probably doesn't require an explanation.

Back in London again, for a lovely sunset.

And now in Scotland! Check out those highlands.

And that reflection!

Kate brought me KD and butter popcorn back from Canada :) They do neither here (in terms of popcorn, they do either salty or sweet - butter isn't even on their radar).

Scotland <3

I have changed my hair again - but this time back to a colour which occurs in nature. Both because I am trying to find a job and also because I am growing my hair out and its not worth trying to maintain a hair colour that requires me to bleach my hair.

See you guys soon with a full rundown of Paris :)

MIA & Christmas Travels

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. This week I had two of three major projects for this semester due, so it got pretty busy there for a while. But I handed the last one in today, and don't have to hand in the final project until Jan 8th! However, I am flying to London tomorrow morning, so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting for the next couple of weeks. My cousin Sam kindly invited me to come down and stay with her in Bath over the break, so I am flying to London, staying there in a hostel for a couple of days, then spending a week (including Christmas) in Bath, before heading off to Paris for New Years (my friend David is doing an internship there and invited me to come visit). So while I may not be posting over the break, I should have lots of photos and stories to share when I get back!

But first - some things I did (besides school) in the last week.

My tutorial group had our christmas party. We decided (at my suggestion) to do a yankee gift swap, but instead of random gifts, to buy our favourite book to put into the exchange. While my all-time favourite book is probably still To Kill A Mockingbird, most people have already read that, so I decided to put in House of Leaves which is, as you may have heard, the best book I've read this year. I told Kate I was getting it, so as soon as it was her turn, she grabbed it, but unfortunately Keira decided to steal it in one of only two steals of the night (the other was from me).

Every one a book!

However, we are all such nerds that I think everyone was pretty stoked... certainly not many people wanted to steal. Our main reaction seemed to be "Book! Mine not yours BACK OFF". Then we spent half an hour flipping through the books we got and barely acknowledging each other.

I got a lovely copy of The Hobbit from Laura! :D

Photo courtesy of Sergio

 From left to right: Lindsey (USA), Chentong (China), Laura (UK), Rachel (UK), Jonny(UK), Sergio (USA), Annie (UK), Keira (UK).

Photo courtesy of Sergio

 From left to right: Sarah (UK), Kyra (Canada), Kate (Canada), Steward (UK), Ali (UK), Sophie (France), Lindsey (USA)

Photo courtesy of Sergio

 Since we were basically the only people in the bar, the barman kindly agreed to take a group photo.

A large part of the rest of my week was spent both at school and hanging out in my living room by the fire (pictured) finishing up my Project Portfolio for Publishing in Practice (the book proposal, including market research, publicity plan, product rational, production schedule, design brief, cover mock-up, and sample pages) and my assessment for CreativeToolkit (redesigning a former Merchiston Publishing project - Detective McLevy's Casebook - including a cover, interior pages, and prelim pages)

Last night I went and saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (again) in this lovely movie theatre... not that its fancy or anything (awesome movie btw).

SYP & FREE WINE

I may be a bit tipsy as I type this. I am sorry for any drastic drop in quality as a result of this fact.

Spent most of my day lounging around my flat in sweatpants, reading and entirely ignoring all the projects I ought to be working on. But at four I was reminded that tonight was the annual SYP (Society of Young Publishers... which isn't actually limited to 'young' publishers anymore, as they removed the age restriction of under 35) Christmas Party at the Dragonfly Cocktail Bar.

Terrible photo. But this was my outfit for the night. Spent six hours in those heels, which was a pretty good job on my part (first typed that as 'hells' which is also relatively accurate). Also, despite what the lying camera says, that dress is far more red than orange. And the wonderful fleece lined tights! (FLEECE LINED TIGHTS). I was worried I was overdressed, a feeling which was definitely amplified when I arrived and found that most of the other MSc students had come straight from class, and were thus dressed in tee-shirts and jeans. However, other publishers were dressed proper, so that was good. We spend the first bit huddled in the corner, but eventually branched out, and I spend quite a bit of the evening talking to some guys from Bright Red Publishing, who were quite amused by how well I represented their brand.

I also drank quite a bit of free wine - they just kept coming around and offering to top us off - and ate my first mince pie!

While the others left early to go to the German Market, I decided there was no way I was walking that far in those heels, and thus spent more time hanging around with publishing people, as well as Giulia from my course.

After that, I went to meet up with the others at Biblos, and lo and behold, Alix, Melissa, and Leanne were already there!

Alix and Melissa: supa gansta

Leanne: very pretty

Harriet is really what makes this picture

Eve and Becky are just stupidly cute

So a wonderful and fun evening spend with friends and *networking* (so professional).

Insane Weather & Hanukkah

Between this post and yesterdays, I have finally learned how to spell Hanukkah! ... or at least one of its billion variations.

Today was a very long day. I was at school from 9am until 3pm, spending the majority of that time working on my assessment for creative toolkit - I did the layout and styles for my prelim pages, including the table of contents, finished up the styles in my first chapter, and, for the eighth friggin time, redid my cover. I wasn't going to, because I was (am) sick of fiddling with it and redoing it over and over, and the fact that my (nonexistent) photoshop skills simply cannot match what I see in my head. But Dave looked at it and had a lot of critiques of it, so I redid it. Stuck around after class ended at one for two hours before I had to leave to start cooking, because Avril said she would be stopping by during our digital workshop (1-4pm) to explain more about the requirements for our assessment for her module, but she apparently never showed up, which I am very angry about. Thats just rude. After class, went and got groceries, and then came home and started cooking!

But before I get into that - the weather is insane here right now. I don't know if you have seen anything about it, probably not now that Nelson Mandela's death has rather taken over the news (which is not a complaint, just a fact) - but England's east coast is apparently experiencing the worst tidal surge in 60 years. You can read the news about it here, but basically what that means for Scotland and Edinburgh, is that we had winds reaching up to 228 km/hr today. Most of the trains were shut down all day. A man was killed when the lorry he was driving was blown over, and a man was hospitalized after he was hit by a tree being blown down in the meadows. Personally, walking to school was really scary. It had calmed down quite a bit by the time I left school, it was much less windy and was no longer raining (we also had a brief, two-second first snowfall of the year today!), which was good. But this morning, when I woke up, it was because the wind was howling outside, and the building was actually moving, and that is saying something considering its stone. I almost got hit by a bus on the way to school because a gust of wind sent me stumbling into the street. It also almost brought me to a standstill a couple of times because walking into it was like walking into a wall. 

Crazy. Though Dave asked Kate and I if we had weather like this in Canada and we were just like dude, Britain is one of the most meteorologically and geologically uneventful places in the world. Would you like to hear our insane weather stories? We have a lot of them. 

So I got home and started cooking. First up the latkes, which may have got a bit of blood in them (stupid graters. Stupid onions). 

People were starting to text me at this point letting me know they weren't going to make it, so I was a bit worried that I had overdone it on the potatoes, but there were no leftovers!

Huzzah! After that I prepped the tofu for the tofu schnitzel, and then we were ready to start frying! Unfortunately, I neglected to account for the effect frying food in oil tends to have on fire alarms, and we were treated to an extended period of both the fire alarm in the kitchen and the one in the living room going off before I, standing on the kitchen counter to reach the stupid thing, finally managed to turn it off, and then clambered on the dining table to make the one in the living room shut up. Unfortunately, that one I did not turn off completely, so we were treated to it occasionally going off for the rest of the cooking time - happily, Eve got quite adept at shutting it off. I definitely need to practice cooking on the gas stove more as well, as it heats and cooks very differently from electric burners. But, by all reports everything was delicious, and as there was no leftovers, I take that as a very good sign! Everyone especially loved the latkes (Lorraine's recipe of course, served with applesauce). 

For dessert, because I am somewhat insane, I decided to make sufganiyot, which I found out about by googling "Hanukkah recipes". Sufganiyot are a "round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah". Except mine did not have jelly in them because even I am not that insane. Again, adventures using the gas stove, though this time I happily did not set off the alarm (at one point my friends informed me that my neighbours were at the door, so I went to the door, covered in flour and bread crumbs, ready to apologize like crazy, but apparently they just wanted to see where the water was coming into their window from, which was easier to check from above (leaning out the window in my apartment)). She (the lady just below us) had heard the alarm but just stuck her head out to make sure there wasn't an actual fire and then ignored us. 

So! An adventure!

FIRE.

Yum. Everyone gamely waited while I made the donuts, which took quite a while as they go through a couple of stages of sitting in a warm, moist place, proofing. But we all hung out, I explained Hanukkah to the best of my ability, and it was a great time.

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Look, I Did Stuff

I realized I really didn't post much last month (to be fair, I was really stressed about finding a new flat) so I'm gonna try and post more this month. Though I still haven't decided if I'm going to take my computer with me while I travel over Christmas or not, so there may be a large chunk of time where I'm away from the blog. We shall see. 

Anyways, today part of my school decided to go on strike (to my everlasting annoyance), so I finally had time to do what I've been meaning to for a couple of weeks now - dye my hair! I also went to my one class that was still on, and then spent a couple of hours in the computer lab working on my book formatting, but thats not that interesting. 

So I am once again a redhead! 

And my bathroom looks like I murdered someone!

This is not a good photograph!

Credit where credit's due - my shower may have terrible pressure, but man, is it hot. It goes up to nine, and I can only stand it up to 6.5 (and I'm the kind of person who likes my shower so hot my skin turns red). 

Started reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Fell asleep on the couch for a little bit - I was in a cozy little nest of warmth and it was icky outside, so I was pretty happy. Someone finally told me why all of the windows here are stupidly single glaze - its because the buildings are by and large historical, and there is a law that doesn't allow the owners to install double windows, because they want to preserve the historical looks of the windows. To which I say PAH. Give me warmth fools! But I've figured out how the thermostat works, you can set it on all the time, on once a day, or on twice a day (on a timer), so I've set the heat to start at 6:30 so the flats nice and cozy when I get out of bed :)