If I could wipe Macs off the face of the earth, I would. Somehow my Word doc didn't like mingling with Susana's Mac, further instilling my absolute hatred of Macs. There were technical difficulties that required me downloading a trial version of InDesign so that I could get the file Susana was working on and fix the spacing, which had been fucked with throughout the entire book.

I dreamed of a day where my book would finally be really for reals 'finished.' It was a difficult, time-consuming, and tiresome process finally getting The Singers published. Didn't take long, did it? I dreamed of amber waves of relief. Like, 'Thank fucking God that's over.' Relief, Kate, I think is the key word here in this interview that I'm sure I'll revisit in later answers.īefore that day, did you imagine your life would change with its arrival? Plus, the whole process took so much time that by the time I saw the final book I was, once again, relieved. First off, I'd seen a handful of proofing copies, which were bound and done just like the final copy, except that the final version has a different cover. I mean, I'm supposed to say that I saw it and was all, like, 'Wowza,' but that didn't happen. Well, Kate, that's not exactly easy to answer, because there is a little bit of thrill stolen from the whole process. What do you remember about the day when you saw your finished book for the first time? I had this book that I lived with for a year and was pretty tired of, and now I can let it go. So, it was tremendously flattering, but also a huge relief. The timing was just so ridiculous, because I was at that point of hating the manuscript, and at the same time feeling pretty good about it because it was the first book of that length I had ever written and it was a troublesome book, originally over 200 pages, I think, that I had to whittle down to its current 80-whatever pages. Of course I was seriously flattered and sent her The Singers. And on that very day I received an email from Susana Gardner of Dusie asking if I had a book-length manuscript she could consider for her new Dusie Press Books, with which I was familiar because Susana had sent me a copy of Elizabeth Treadwell's Cornstarch Figurine and Susana had earlier published my e-chapbook, 2 poems from the bottom of the barrel, in the 1st *dusi/e-chap kollectiv. Not that I was working on it every day all of those months, but after those 12 or 13 months I decided I was done with the book. I had written the first draft of The Singers in June of '05, and spent about the next 12 or 13 months working on the book. How did your manuscript happen to be published by Dusie Press Books? Had you sent it out often before that? How has your first book changed your life?

Enjoy Me by Logan Ryan Smith