329.
Contrary to expectations, it was quite a nice feeling going back to work yesterday. I am very, very pleased with myself that I actually managed to translate one chapter, proofread and copyedit another, prepare abstracts for six more and make a start on the book's index. Before you think that I'm either a superman, a liar, or the material I am working on very, very short, please let me explain. This is the seventh book that I have worked on with this author. Moreover, this particular author is a very close colleague of mine: we have published a book together and have worked with each other during the past 11 years. It is fair to say, then, that I am very familiar with his work and style of writing, so translating his material is never usually a problem. The chapter was the usual 10,000 words, but over half of it was already in English, and since it was my English from an earlier translation, it only needed minor alterations to make allowance for the context f the newly inserted Portuguese sections. So, to be fair, it wasn't that difficult (although if you are reading this, ACP, it was extremely difficult, and I have been working on it for almost a week now). As for the rest of the material, well, it was relatively straightforward, and there wasn't really too much, apart from the usual missing references, that required attention. The abstracts were a little more difficult, and it was these that took up most of my time. Still, almost everything is now done, and once I receive the two missing chapters I will set about preparing the index and list of abbreviations. Hopefully I will be able to finish most of this within the next couple of days, as that will let me move on to the next project - another book that needs my skills as a translater, proofreader and copyeditor. Six weeks on the sick mean that I have it all to do, so I had better get to it. I see candles being burned at both ends for the next couple of weeks. It must be done though, because if I want to get a couple of new lenses for my camera (and I do), then this is the price that must be paid. Perhaps I'll let the blutak photog use his Stikon to capture Pad images for me. That way you'll all get to assess it's image quality, and I'll be able to concentrate on the ever so serious task of earning money.