More good news

I’ve been having a run of good news just lately, what with the new affiliate account being set up at Pen & Sword, me being selected as a World Book Night giver, and of course the mass influx of work I’ve had in.

A dialogue has started between me and the publishers I responded to on Monday, and it already feels nice and friendly.

Yesterday a small package arrived in the post and it was my “prize” for having a letter published in a writing magazine I’ve never had anything published in before. If I said the prize was a Moleskine notebook, most people would know I mean Writers’ Forum magazine – we think it must be the April edition as there’s nothing in the March edition currently out.

I have no idea what to do with a Moleskine notebook … I use shorthand notebooks and Paperchase decorated notebooks, like this one.

And a gig buddy who runs a guitar shop has started an affiliate scheme too, and my link is below. The badge looks as though it was made for the gig list, it looks like it grew there …

So many links today, I seem to be having a LinkFest.

The even better news is that the diary has had an overhaul and I’m fully-booked, chock-a-block to 9 March, and pretty much most of the rest of March is also already booked. BUT … I HAVE cut out the daily competitions slot, shortened my lunch to 30 minutes, and my days finish at 6pm every day with the WHOLE weekend off.

This gives me 35 working hours per week, plus writing the blog and walking the dog, 20 of which are assigned to Pen & Sword. The other 15 hours are writing, invoicing, admin, study.

Next target is a whole day off outside of the weekend, seeing as I didn’t get a proper Christmas holiday.

Here’s my mate’s link.

Writing a business plan

I don’t know where the weekend went again, but it was most probably beneath a pile of work.

I had a meeting in town this morning, and I may be entitled to some financial support setting up my new business again. I know I’ve been doing the groundwork for the past few months, but if there’s assistance available, I’d like to try for it. This means I have to write a business plan, preferably before my next meeting next Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I last wrote a business plan. It’ll be a challenge, and fun, and interesting.

Tomorrow I have another appointment in town, this time at the optician. With all of the proof-reading I’ve done recently, I’ve noticed that my near-vision isn’t as great as it could be so I want to get some reading glasses while I’ll still get assistance with those.

While I’m in town I’ll drop off the latest book I finished proof-reading and last week’s invoice (hurrah!). I have another 3 books to proof already in, plus the novel still to edit – but we’re still awaiting the remote-access technology for that anyway. I also have a short story to finalise and submit and an article to get going on.

Later in the week I have another trip into town, this time to collect 2 parcels that Royal Mail were “unable to deliver” this morning, even though I was in … Go figure … Like I need an extra run out this week when I’m already so busy.

I have this basic Work in Progress list on my noticeboard now, and it’s been there for about 3 weeks. It’s brilliant and one of the best visual props I’ve tried. It has the commissioned stuff at the top and the on spec stuff at the bottom, and both lists have the actual or probable income that each job will earn.

When I’ve done the work, and invoiced for the commissioned stuff, the job gets crossed off. I can see at a glance what work I have left to do for this week or month and I can see how much I’m likely to earn from it too. It doesn’t include all the other guff I do, but It’s a good tool to have on hand.

Recently I’ve submitted 2 quotes for further proof-reading work. Both new clients – one a publishing company, one an individual. I’m still waiting to hear from those. And this morning I responded to a call for a British editor from a US publisher, and she’s replied already. I have a test to do and then, if she wants to hire me, there may be some negotiating.

At the weekend I heard from the new client I proof-read the novel for. He said I’d done a great job and that I’d more than earned my corn. That was nice feedback to receive when he was such a new client. Hopefully there will be more work from there in the near future.

This week is a good week for members of ALCS. It’s pay day week. Always a nice little bonus.

And the winner is …

I wrote the names down on paper and then asked Rufus to choose, and the winner of the TWEE TALES book giveaway is … CHIEF DEMON WRANGLER!

Whoo-hoo! Congratulations, Jo. I’ll be emailing you for your snail mail address.

Thanks to everyone who joined in, and thanks to all of those who have already bought a copy. Everyone else (if they want to) can buy a copy of the paperback here, or the Kindle version here.

The good news today is that I have work in. The bad news is it means I can’t go walking. I thought about it and toyed with it, but the sooner I get the work done, the sooner I can invoice, the sooner the money comes in.  I can’t justify the cost of the petrol versus the potential loss of funds and Rufus isn’t being a very good dog just now, so I wouldn’t trust him anyway.

I thought we’d cracked it, I thought he’d learned not to run off when I let him off the lead. He comes back when it’s people he’s chasing after and sometimes he’ll give up chasing them before he reaches them. But if he sees another dog, that’s it.

I think it’s because he only sees me from one week to the next, he’s not mixing with other people or other dogs. So I’m upping the obedience training and getting stricter. I’ve got a clicker/whistle for now, if that doesn’t work, it’s an extended lead and, when I can afford it, puppy school. I’ve decided I’d like to show him, or maybe see how he likes agility fun, and he needs obedience training for both of those.

So, it’s peeing down with rain and I’m stuck indoors. But at least I have some good reading material.

Another good news is that my affiliate account with Pen & Sword is up and running. So if buyers click on my links now, I get commission.

And my final piece of good news – for now – is that I’ve been selected as a book-giver for the 2012 World Book Night. I got my first book choice too, SLEEPYHEAD by MARK BILLINGHAM.

Have a great weekend.

Happier

Well, I tried the vodka rub – and, erm, accidentally swallowed it, but it did work. For a while. I swallowed paracetamol, codeine, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium. I washed with a saline solution and I dabbed with clove oil. But I couldn’t get the pain to shift until I put a cold, wet flannel (face cloth) on my face and had an ice cold drink of water.

I called my dentist, who said I needed to see my GP. So I called my GP, who said I needed to see my dentist. I made some noise with the GP, and he gave me an appointment for Friday … Friday! Then said to call this morning and they’d see me in an emergency. So I called them this morning, and they refused to see me saying I had to see my dentist …

I think the abscess burst last night, I was in so much pain I would have quite happily held a gun at my dentist’s head – anyone’s head – until he/they removed a tooth, and I’m a bit attached to my teeth. The pain finally went after the cold compress, but I was sick as a dog during the night. Either it was that drug cocktail, or the abscess burst and drained down my throat …

I called my dentist again first thing, and he asked me to go in NOW. So I did, and he gave me some antibiotics, but he did say that as the abscess isn’t due to tooth decay but due to an infection my GP really should have seen me.

There will be a letter of complaint going off to my GP and to whoever else I’m supposed to complain to, and no doubt the story will make it into a national magazine. But at least the pain has gone now, I know it’s going to get better (although the antibiotics taste disgusting), and I can get back on with my work.

The most upsetting thing about all of this is that I had a BakingFest on Sunday and the chronic toothache has meant I haven’t been able to enjoy the crusty bread rolls I baked or the orange and raisin loaf. In fact, I’ve been on gloopy food for the past few days – the scales will be pleased with me, no doubt.

So, to work.

As I was in town on Tuesday I nipped in to pick up another book to proof. I thought there would be 2, but apparently one was quite long, a teeny-tiny font, and my lovely-already-editor didn’t think I’d enjoy it. So, as I already have a very nice pile of work from them anyway, and as he does try to send me ones I’ll like, someone else copped for that one. But he did have this replacement. He also said he has at least 2 more, so he’s going to print those off for when I pop in again.

I could have taken one back to him today, as I was going to the dentist, but as the dentist wanted to see me first thing, that one will go back tomorrow instead.

I missed a competition deadline yesterday, which I’m also sore about. But I’ve not been well for a couple of days with this abscess and, again, it’s a story I was writing anyway but just fielding via the competition. I need to knuckle down and start planning my time better. It’s very well missing competition deadlines, although quite undisciplined, but not acceptable to miss commercial or professional deadlines.

There’s a Ramblers’ meeting tonight, but I may send my apologies for that and catch up on some work. I’m still on target to join them on Saturday afternoon, though.

Today is the last day to enter the competition for a free copy of TWEE TALES. The link is here.

Grumpy Diane

I wasn’t around much last week, was I? This is because I’ve been so busy and anything other than the work I have in made me feel guilty. Saying that, there were also 2 fairly draining episodes within a FB group I moderate that needed attention, including a major protest that we sent national and then viral.

The combination of stress and work (and possibly lack of funds at the moment) has caused the abscess on my jaw to flare up. This happens when I’m stressed or low, and as I’m not feeling very low … I can take anti-inflammatories and painkillers for it and see if it dies down again. If it doesn’t die down it means a trip to the dentist … and he’ll have to remove a healthy tooth so he can drain it (gulp) … OR root canal work (gulp).

I think we can all guess which way my fingers are crossed for.

We think we had the desired effect with the protest. A major national women’s weekly magazine is, basically, trying to fleece its short story writers. We’re sick of this keep happening and if we can’t convince the magazines to pay a decent wage to the people who fill their commercially viable pages then we have to convince the writers not to write for them.

We don’t work for free, thank you. Would you?

The diary has had an overhaul this week. I’m hoping I can shift 3 non-fiction books (proof-reading) and 2 short stories. I dropped one of the stories (for now) because it won’t make the deadline. I’ll use it eventually, though. I’ll just skip the Feb competition I was going to field it via first.

Working all week and all weekend is making Diane very grumpy. So with the diary overhaul I’m hoping to be finished by 6pm every day this week and have the weekend off – which was the original plan, but when needs must …

The Ramblers have a 6 mile easy Saturday afternoon walk over in Slaithwaite and I want to join them for that.

Incredibly happy

Well now, how busy am I? I’ll tell you, shall I? (And FB friends may have already seen some of this.)

Are you ready? Faint-hearted, look away now:

• I’m just finishing proof-reading a novel
• I’m proof-reading a non-fiction book
• 3 more books to proof already in
• there’s *another* on the way
• 2 quoted private proof-reading jobs pending
• a novel to edit
• 3 short stories to write – due 14 Feb, 16 Feb and 21 Feb
• a novel to write
• AND an article to write by 25 Feb …

And the Ramblers wonder if I’d like to edit their area newsletter … :-/

This is, of course, very good. All of my hard work over Christmas is paying off and I’m incredibly happy. But I’m also incredibly busy. I can hardly wait until I’m incredibly rich too.

On a lighter note, I’ll soon be an affiliate with Pen & Sword. This means whenever someone buys a book as a result of the links on my book page, I’ll get a royalty. And quite a nice one too. So please, if you’d like to buy any of the books I’ve worked on for them, follow my link first and I’ll get a bonus. Ta very much. Oh, and take a look anyway. The more books page is gorgeous.

I also still have a book giveaway running until next Wednesday (15 Feb). Follow this link to take part if you haven’t already, and thanks to those who have.

I’m also incredibly grateful to all the people who have bought TWEE TALES already. This book is doing so well compared to the first one and I really don’t understand why. Perhaps someone will tell me one day.

Here is my author page at Amazon UK; here is my author page at Amazon US; and here is my author page at Lulu.

Okay, that list … later.

A wee bit chilly

It’s a wee bit chilly here in the UK, but I’m happy enough with that. It is, after all, winter, and we haven’t had our snow dump yet – although quite a few places were hit on Saturday with a lot of gigs getting cancelled. As usual it’s blown right over us here in the Land that Time and Snow Forgot.

I’ve been working hard, promoting the new book, proof-reading the WIP, writing short stories and fillers.

Now that I have the proof-reading and editing coming in on a regular basis (although we’re still waiting for the editing software to work remotely), I don’t have to worry about writing articles I don’t really fancy writing. Instead I can concentrate on fiction again, short stories and novels.

This is good, and I’m very happy with that. And if my short stories don’t sell, I’ll just publish another anthology. But I’m entering competitions too so that I get feedback.

I have a new list on my noticeboard, it’s a WIP list that has all the jobs I have “in” at the moment. I currently have 5 books to proof, 1 to edit, 1 to post back, 3 short stories to write (2 of them for competitions). And, of course, the novel.

The two competitions have deadlines of 14 and 16 February, so those will be the fiction projects I’ll be concentrating on. I’ll also plod through the books in the order in which they arrived.

Since I started with this list I’ve almost forgotten about the diary, but that has other stuff in such as appointments and other jobs and chores that need doing.

I’m constantly watching the sky for snow, but I think we’ve had our lot for now. It is very, very cold, however. I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

In case you hadn’t already noticed, I have a new book out. This book was supposed to be published today, 1 February – although I only decided this last Friday.

I was trawling through my old submissions to see if anything was worth dusting off and sending out, and I started to organise my old successes. It made me think it was a pity they were all sat there doing nothing, but as there’s not much market for reprints – and, let’s face it, there’s not much market for brand new short stories these days either – they seemed destined to collect dust.

And then I had a mild brain murmur. I’d select some of them, add a few new ones, and publish an anthology. I don’t know where these ideas come from sometimes. I was already ridiculously busy, but 1 February is  good date for a new book, and 1 February was looming large. I thought I’d get the bulk of my work done before indulging myself … and then I remembered that Lulu had a free shipping promotion that ended on 31 January.

It would be a bit mean if I published a new book the day after the free shipping offer ran out … so I worked day and night (on the “day job” and the self-indulgence) to get the book published by Sunday – and with at least 3 days left of the free shipping offer.

TWEE TALES  is a collection of 12 published, broadcast and brand new short stories. The cover photograph, a wraparound and one of mine, was taken at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I’m seriously in love with this photograph, so much so I’ve reproduced the whole thing here:

Buy TWEE TALES  from Lulu for just £3.39 + p&p. The free shipping offer has expired now, but there is a 20% discount available on all purchases until 3 February. All you have to do is quote CHERUBUK at the checkout. The book is also available on Kindle - in the UK for just £1.78, Europe, and in the US for just $2.80, although I can’t seem to get the US basket to work at the moment and it’s supposed to be $2.99 anyway.

This one is flying off the shelves already, I’m delighted to say. I don’t know why, perhaps I’ll get some feedback.

If you would like to win a FREE copy, all you have to do is comment below. I’ll get Rufus to do a draw in 2 weeks time – 15 February.

I’m taking today off. I was supposed to be at the optician’s in Leicester, but we had to change the appointment. As I was so busy, and as I was driving down today anyway, we also postponed my Sunday visit with my mom and dad. So I’m taking Rufus to see them today instead, where I’ll be miles away from a computer so unable to do anything. Or that’s the plan …

Play nicely.

Twee Tales

I have a new book out.

TWEE TALES  is a collection of 12 published, broadcast and brand new short stories. The cover photograph, a wraparound and one of mine, was taken at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Buy it now, from Lulu, for just £3.39 and get FREE UK shipping by quoting WHOASHIPPINGUK at the checkout before 31 January.

Thank you.

EDIT: Now also available on Kindle - in the UK, Europe and US. (29 Jan)

Busy week ahead (lists alert)

WARNING: Possibly not for the faint-hearted …

I’ve not been very well again this week, waking up last Friday morning with quite a sore throat that got steadily worse as the week progressed. I think it’s because I came into contact with someone with children – not that children are bad for me or anything, but they are contagious if there’s something going around at school, and as I don’t have contagious children at school to help build my immunity, I catch the first thing that crosses my path.

So it’s been a week of hot, restless nights, late lie-ins, temperatures, feeling sorry for myself. And I’ve not managed all the work I promised myself. Saying that, I have done quite a lot.

• I’ve been proofing a novel for a new client
• I’ve been proofing a book for already-boss
• I’ve written and submitted a reader’s letter
• I’ve written and submitted a markets article
• I’ve submitted Night Crawler to a self-publishing competition
• I carried out an errand of mercy for a musician friend
• I’ve planned 3 short stories and written the first drafts of 2 of them
• I’ve uploaded the gig list for February

On top of all of this I was set a challenge by a writing friend to add just one extra thing to my to-do list today. I really didn’t think I’d have time, but as I was stirring this morning, an idea occurred to me, and then another, and then another …

So, this morning I’ve:

• Printed off 6 short stories that were doing nothing. I’m going to sit and read through them, see if they can be improved, then I’m going to send at least 3 of them out.
• Printed off a 60-word flash that won a comp yonks ago to see if it can be polished and sent out.
• Printed off a very old RTE – still in courier font – that I’m going to see if I can polish and send out.
• Selected 9 published or broadcast short stories and opened an anthology document. I’m going to choose 3 of the unpublished stories to go with it and start thinking Lulu/Kindle with that.

I usually look forward to a nice, relaxing weekend, but I may have to do my supermarket shopping this evening. Then it’s all systems go.

• Tomorrow afternoon I have a Ramblers meeting in Bolsover.
• Tomorrow evening I have to deliver a friend’s guitar to him in Doncaster.
• On Sunday it’s parents’ day, so a run out to Birmingham.
• On Monday I’m at the dentist. (shudder)
• On Tuesday I have an appointment in town.
• On Wednesday I’m due in Leicester for an optician’s appointment.
• On Thursday … I think I’m just working …
• On Friday morning I have an appointment in town.
• On Friday afternoon I have a hair appointment.

Just how am I supposed to get anything done?

Have a great weekend.

Guest: Sarah England

I’m delighted to welcome friend and fellow Seriously Serious Scribe Sarah England to Baggins Bottom as she launches her new novel, EXPECTED, and tells us how she came to write it.

Long before I became a fiction writer I had another life. A life of nursing, pharmaceutical sales and various other pursuits – one of which was, for a brief time, injecting collagen into people’s faces. Ouch!

I also had a failed marriage and a life experience catalogue bursting with traumatic incidents, which were either going to scar me for life and leave me as a bitter and twisted troll living in the roots of a tree or – a fiction writer. I chose the latter.

First I had to learn my craft. Easy, I thought. Anyone can be a writer. Okay – 2 years later I was exposing my first fabulous tome to an agent at a writers’ conference. “Hmm,” said she (talking of trolls, weren’t we?). “This is incredibly boring.”

First lesson – I wasn’t interesting. Yes, I left in tears – of course I did – my ego had just been crushed. But I did finally see that writing wasn’t easy. Actually it was very, very hard – because not only did you have to have a way with words but you also had to have a story to tell, and you had to entertain the reader. I decided to start again – this time with short stories.

A year later and I had a short story published – I grinned all day. I’d done it. And I was hooked – for 5 more years I worked on short stories for magazines and anthologies, with now over 100 published. But – what about my fascinating anecdotes from my other life still waiting to be told? And that’s where EXPECTED came into being.

Looking at the whole picture from the lofty position of middle-age I realised that all my disappointments had come from expecting something else. And most of my tragic mistakes had come from other people expecting me to be someone I wasn’t.

However, along with tragedy, comedy is often juxtaposed and here was that first lesson I had learned – to entertain the reader. I’m an avid reader myself and soon lose interest if the writer is self-absorbed or trying to deceive me. So that’s what I concentrated on – making you, the reader, have a good time. EXPECTED was launched.

So, did the London agents all rush to my aid with publishing contracts? No they did not. I had hand-written letters saying they loved it, that they’d all had a good laugh – but the women’s commercial fiction market was really struggling and so … Well, and so I decided to publish it myself.

EXPECTED is now on Amazon Kindle ebooks – a free Kindle app and just £3.63 to download. You can download sample chapters for free to see if you like my girl, Sam, of course. Will you like her? Will you be entertained? I really hope so.

You can buy Sarah’s ebook here, from Amazon UK, or here, from Amazon US. And you can visit her at Sarah England.

I don’t work weekends …

… and considering I don’t work weekends, I had quite a productive one, work-wise.

True, I did the shopping and the usual household chores, and Saturday night we did all make it to a gig and we had a great time – this particular band never, ever disappoints. So we were all slightly gleeful when their lights failed to come on at the start, but that’s just spiteful …

On Sunday I had a brief lie-in but I’d set myself the task of clearing some long overdue reading. Before I could start that, though, I had to do something with the double gates at the back of my property.

They really haven’t been secured properly, despite my neighbour assuring the builder that he didn’t have to worry as he – the neighbour – would sort it out. Well, he’s made a right abortion of it, so I’ve re-called the builder and I’m going to get it done properly. I can’t afford for those gates to be smashed to bits every time we have a puff of wind.

In the end I propped them open. That seemed to work until the wind dropped much later, when they could be closed again, and builder man will be here tomorrow or Wednesday.

Then I got on with my new weekend chore, reading. As writers we should be reasonably well-read and as I was running out of time in the week …

• I managed to shift 2 old Writing Magazines, 2 old Writers’ News (I separate them) and 2 old Writers’ Forums;
• I selected a selection of “personal development” books for the book bag (including one on the window box allotment and an angel diary, both month by month, and various writing books);
• I got back on track with the current novel I’m reading for pleasure (Northern Lights by Philip Pullman);
• I scheduled in work for 2 short story competitions, 1 self-publishing competition, 2 short story submissions, and 2 article submissions;
• and I updated the diary for the next 2 weeks.

For the following week in the diary I left gaps for Pen & Sword work and filled in the writing tasks around those. I’m glad I did that because this morning they sent me an email letting me know there’s another proof-reading job on its way and I was able to add it to the P&S allotted space without shifting anything else along.

I’m doing this and other proof-reading and editing work Monday to Thursday so that Fridays can be spent on admin. But as I also like articles, short stories and fillers/letters to “cool” overnight in between drafts, I needed to slot them in somewhere. So they are the last hour of the day and one hour in the evening.

Not bad for someone who doesn’t work at the weekends, eh?

Also this morning, over breakfast, I cleared another old Writers’ Forum magazine and was so irritated by something they’d put in reply to a reader’s letter that I immediately fired a reader’s letter off of my own. So before I even started work today, I’d submitted a reader’s letter – and via the mobile phone too.

Then I spent some time with Catch the Rainbow before writing this blog and playing a game while I ate. I’m about to do my daily competitions, while I’m at the pc, then I’ll take the dog for his imaginary walk, although I think I just missed a bit of a snow flurry. Boo!

When I get back I’m proof-reading a novel for a client, writing draft 2 of an article, and looking at a potential competition for Night Crawler. If it qualifies – it’s a self-publishing competition – and if it’s not raving expensive, I may enter.

So long as I’m done by 9pm – tea and bath too – I’m happy. I like to relax and wind down for the evening then, either in front of the telly or reading a book.

Right, well … back to it, missus.

Admin day

So, Fridays are the new admin days and, so far, i.e. this week, it seems to have worked.

I’m still very busy with proof-reading, with another book arriving this morning from lovely-already-boss.

I’ve been on the phone to my domestic energy provider. My current contract is up at the end of February so, armed with my latest meter readings, I negotiated a new contract with them. Aside from a small refund, I also get a £4 a month reduction on my monthly direct debit payment. That’s £48 over the year, plus the refund.

I’ve also been on the phone to my mobile phone company. I have the 20-texter for £20 with them (Three) but I also bought a £5 add-on for extra internet use. I needed this at the start of the year when I was out and about and at a day job. But now – and I should have done it sooner, I agree – I don’t use it as I have my own broadband. So that’s cancelled and saves £60 over the year, plus another very small refund.

And I’ve been on the phone to the tax man. It was quite ridiculous because I knew I’d owe them some tax for year 2010/2011, but this would be far outweighed by what they’d owe me for 2011/2012. However, I still had a £423 bill due to pay at the end of January. I called them and they agreed that I’d be due a massive refund on 2011/2012, but also when faced with either paying my mortgage or a tax bill I’d be given back anyway, they agreed to a deferral for 6 months. I’ll still have to pay it, but at least now it can come out of my refund.

As it’s Friday I also had invoices to raise (hurrah!), including an internal one for a letter I had published in that’s life! this week. They made it the star letter, AND they’ve already paid me. How amazing is that?

I’ve ordered a new toner cartridge for the laser printer. I’m going to be using it a lot more and the one I recently put in must have been on the wardrobe for too long as it’s faded on the one side.

Finally, I printed off some new stationery – invoices that don’t have my bank details on them for those that don’t need them.

So, I’m about to take the dog for a trot to the letterbox. While I’m out I’m setting the laptop to do a scan, and I have some cheques to pay into my bank account via the post office.

And then … it’s the weekend. I’m going out tomorrow night.

Have a good one.

Routine

So … we’re on 18 January already and I finally seem to have settled into a routine that works.

I’ve been a tad busy proof-reading a couple of rush-jobs but I delivered the second one of those yesterday and can breathe again. I have another 2 to do, which I’ll start next week, and I have a new client’s novel to proof-read as well, which I start today.

Yesterday I was also shown the editing software I should be able to use from a distance. They’ve been testing it and it seems to be working, so now they have to see if they can make it work externally. When they’ve done that, they’ll give me a link and a password and we’ll see if it works for me. As I’m the only external person using it, I’m the one that gets to test it.

Once everything is up and running I’ll probably start with 2 books per month, the first one should be with me by the end of this week. When they settle they’ll publish at least one historical novel a month but usually two, and they’re all mine.

I asked him for a turnaround and he said “Ooh, some time in August …”. He doesn’t know me very well yet – I need proper deadlines or I’ll literally leave it to 31 August. I can’t help it … So he said 2 – 4 weeks. However, of course I know now that they can really wait until August … I’m going to have to get over that.

So far this month I’ve had 5 non-fiction books come in to proof, 3 of which have been delivered. I may get another before the end of the month, but I don’t think 6 is the norm at all. But, 4 – 6 non-fictions and 1 – 2 fictions are handle-able, and once I get into a routine with that I’ll probably invoice once per month.

I am getting into a routine all around. I’ve decided that Monday – Thursday will mostly be proof-reading or editing, mostly for Pen & Sword, and Fridays (and Saturdays when necessary) will be admin, finances, article-writing and pitching.

Walking the dog after lunch is working too. It gives me a break and some fresh air in the middle of the day and I usually walk him to the letterbox or the post office at the same time.

Yesterday I got the urge to tidy up my “more books” page. Do bob along to have a look – the link’s here. I think the new look is more streamlined, looks quite attractive, and it’s easier to manage because I just add the next book at the top and the rest should just shuffle down. What do you think?

Today then is proof-reading a novel for the new client, updating the gig list, and I have a Ramblers’ meeting tonight. Well, I say “meeting” but we actually have a speaker so the regular meeting will take place next month. Because we have a visitor I’ll go along to show solidarity and make up the numbers.