Frustrating isn’t the word. I closely proof-read the manuscript of Tess of Portelet Manor yet again before releasing it back to my editing/layout team for correction and submission of the print-ready file to the printers.

‘How many would you like? We can deliver week beginning 10th December’

How tempting was that – maybe get it on the local shelves in time for the Christmas market! But I remembered a lesson from before. At the risk of delaying delivery I asked for a hard-copy printer’s proof to go over it one last time.

Thank God I did. Dozens of instances of white space – double spacing and worse – have suddenly appeared in the text. It looks a total mess. I don’t know where this occurred but, had I taken delivery in that state I’d have rejected it, probably at my own cost.

So instead of happily reading over a story I’ve loved writing – and maybe isolating a handful of minor corrections, I’m going through it grumpily, marking up with red pen and yellow Post-It flags. And once the file is re-submitted I won’t dare give the Print order without reading through yet another proof. Grrr!

But the front cover’s beautiful isn’t it?

But in other news I hear that  Jersey Life, a local lifestyle magazine, will be reviewing A Jersey Midsummer Tale in their December issue 🙂

And on the running front I’m enjoying getting out there in a small way again, pleased not to have lost too much fitness. OK, I’m still being passed out by women carrying their shopping and old blokes with Zimmer frames, but I’ve no past glories to live up to. I’m still trying to register Jersey Joggers with England Athletics but their website refuses either to recognise Jersey postcodes or to proceed without a postcode.

Whatever, as with the book, time isn’t important.