The proof copy of my urban fantasy novel Desiccation has arrived! Here I am posing in front of my bookshelf that’s populated with the works of all those literary greats who have inspired me to write.
When I showed the book to my son, Joshua, he inspected the front and back cover, browsed through a page or two (just like someone visiting a shop or library) and declared, “Wow, it looks like a real book!”
I am so excited. But now to stay level and proofread it through with absolute concentration. The formatting looks good, but there might still be a sneaky little typo hiding somewhere.
My eBook version is ready, but waiting for conversion to html after I’m sure there are no typos in the paperback copy.
Then it’s all systems go.
But before cracking on with the last stage, I’m taking a breather until next Tuesday to spend time doing something other than book-related stuff.
I’m back following a month spent in a posh boarding school for girls.
My time machine took me back to 1967, as instructed, but not to the right month or the right location. Instead of visiting San Francisco to participate in The Summer of Love, I ended up on the southeast coast of the UK in the Autumn, in time for some less than peaceful happenings at a girls boarding school.
By the end of 2015, you will all have a chance to learn what a close call it was for the world during that term of 1967. Meanwhile, try to imagine how Doctor Who must feel about all those occasions he has saved our world from destruction by unwelcome extraterrestrials or creatures from other dimensions.
Enough of that for now. I don’t want to jitter present students at the posh establishment upon which I’ve based my fictional school: well, not yet, anyway.
Wearing my serious face now, I completed the July on-screen edit of my urban fantasy novel Desiccation, as intended, arriving at the end — albeit, exhausted — on the 31st of the month. Next thing on the agenda is to do an out-loud read-through from hard copy, doubtless, driving my family up the wall. But the dog will enjoy it, I’m sure.
Apart from this, of course, I intend to spend some serious catch-up time over at your blogs. I have missed you all during my sabbatical and have had a mighty battle with myself to stay away from WordPress. Just as well my time machine wasn’t advanced enough to send messages into the future whilst sojourning in the past.
And for your enjoyment, I’ve brought back a top ten hit from the music charts of 1967 that is a personal favourite of one of the main characters in my novel. Unfortunately, I can only mention the song by title in the story, otherwise I end up in copyright territory, which can prove expensive. As a teenager, The Who were one of my favourite groups, so the least I can do is give them a mention in my fiction all these years later.
Sarah Potter Writes 