Waiting

On September 9, 2005 I noticed a Call for Articles for the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, and Electronic Reserve. Little did I know I would still be thinking about that Call for Articles two and a half years later.

I decided to write a short article on "On-the-Fly" interlibrary loan departments. My primary topic was: How do you get ILL done if you don't have time to do it? The article was published (Yay!) and I didn't think about it again.

Then on September 26, 2007, I received a jaunty email from a publisher asking me if I was interested in writing more. "Of course," I wrote, "but not until after we complete the library move." You know when you say something because it's the right thing to say? This was one of those occasions. I figured that the guy would forget.

How wrong I was.

January 22, 2008: Hope the move went well! Still want to write the book?

"Sure," I write, "What do I need to do?"

The proposal itself took forever. I became obsessed with ILL thinking about it on the train, the plane, in church, at work, watching tv.

I really freaked myself out: If this is what it took to write the proposal, what would the book take?

I sent in the draft and received comments from the publisher. I corrected the proposal, sent it back and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Finally two weeks had passed and I sent an email. "Any more comments?" I asked. "No, we sent it around. It's out for review with an expert" (!!!!) What???? Out for review??? But, but, but....

This really might happen. I'm probably going to have to write a book. In one summer.

On interlibrary loan.