Tempus is Fugiting like mad

I've just signed the first two copies of We Could Possibly Comment for writer friends. At least, I've just signed them in a dream. With, hopefully, just a week or so to go before I receive my allocation of the print run, I expect to be having more similar dreams - and nightmares.
One benefit of the dream, is that it has reminded me that I'll need to slow down when signing. I find it extremely difficult to write slowly which, admittedly, is quite handy for a journalist who only did shorthand for a year at university... a very long time ago. It's a distinct disadvantage, though, when writing greetings cards, letters and envelopes and I frequently mess them up. Methinks a few practice sessions are called for.
That's something else to add to a list that doesn't seem to have got smaller in recent weeks. It's now only about ten days until I head off to The Writers' Summer School at Swanwick, Derbyshire

I've still to finalise work on the Non-fiction course I've been asked to run - I've set myself a deadline of this Friday to have it nailed, apart from some Marketing information.

On the book front, I sent text and some JPegs to a local printer on Monday for flyers and that's still to be finalised. The latest delivery date for the books to the publisher in Leicester (nice to see that my book is highlighted on their bookshop page New and Notable is next Thursday, the 8th, but as that's probably too late to get my copies up to Glasgow in time for Swanwick, hopefully that can be brought forward a couple of days.

There are several other tasks that have to be completed before I disappear off to the peerless Peak District, which means I'll have to devote less time to Facebook (the main culprit behind my lack of blogging in the past couple of weeks) and be very focused.

The clock continues its relentless ticking down.

A Never Ending Process

I finally got the proof-checking finished yesterday and all the pages needing corrections sent back to Troubador .

It's quite incredible how a manuscript can be checked umpteen times by four different people - all with proofreading experience to varying degrees, and yet I was still spotting slight errors yesterday afternoon when I was on the point of popping the sheets back in the envelope.

I'm sure there's a good chance that there might be a couple of little things noticed when the corrected sheets come back, but at least I know that as much care as possible has been taken to eliminate them.

The photo proofs arrived last Friday and a good job has been done fitting them in to the two black & white and one colour sections. The most glaring mistake was in one of the photos, taken from The Master of Ballantrae. In the picture, Finola Hughes, Richard Thomas and the young actor who played their son, Alexander, in the drama are all smiling at the camera, but poor Ian has been totally decapitated (he's not even nearly-headless) - you can only see him from the lace ruff down.

I'm sure that the photo will look like this once the proof has been corrected

I look forward to receiving the corrected proofs - and having very little to do except check through them, sign them off, and be one step nearer to having the finished product in my hand.

The Proof is in the Pudding

The proofs for the book We Could Possibly Comment - Ian Richardson Remembered were waiting for me on the doormat this morning when I got back from my swim.

I suppose the emotions I felt when I was opening the envelope were a mixture of relief that they were reaching me soon enough, hopefully, for me to get them back to Troubador in time for copies to be ready for the Writers' Summer School in early August, and trepidation as to how I would feel upon reading it again. I'm sure there will be the odd thing I look at and think I could have written/edited better - or perhaps not said at all, and other things I wish I'd put in, but that will always be the case with something you create.

The photo proofs - there will be two black & white and one colour section - and the cover proof should be with me shortly.

I know I'll have mixed feelings when the finished product arrives and I see 'the book' for the first time. Of course, there should be a sense of elation when your first book is published and you get to hold it in your hand for the first time. In this case it will be more a sense of relief that what I set out to do - to honour Ian's memory by getting a book on him out there - has at last been achieved. And there will be sadness too - the reason it has been completed is because Ian is no longer with us.

However, I hope it will awaken in those who read it, many memories of a wonderful actor and very special human being. And for those who read it but never got to meet him or see his performances on stage, film or television, a sense of the man - and perhaps the urge to obtain many of his visual or audio works that are still available.