13 November
Books and swimming
There is a little-known connection between books and swimming. That is, on the way out to spend another day sitting in a sweltering swimming hall for up to eight or nine hours, to watch Offspring swim for about five minutes all told, I tend to take something to read. A book. Or two. There have been swimming competitions over the last two weekends. Offspring did well, taking times of his PBs and winning medals, and generally enjoying himself. I got too hot and a sore back... but I also read a few books, which explains why there is a sudden upsurge in the book review section.
08 October
SAST graded meet
The South Ayrshire Swim Team graded meet took place last weekend. Son no. 3 did well. For those who don’t understand what a graded meet is (which we didn’t when he competed in his first one), you can only enter if your time is below a set time, and if you beat that time in a race, you aren’t placed. Even if you came first. Never mind, that’s not why this post is here. It’s here because SAST kindly allowed me to display As They Grow Older, and I sold another eight copies, some of the money going to SAST. Thanks very much to those who bought a copy, and I hope you enjoy it. I’m gradually working my way through my list of marketing tasks: I’m not very good at it, but I’m getting there!
30 September
Fame but no fortune
A couple of weeks ago I ventured into the offices of the Ayrshire Post and asked them if they would run a story about As They Grow Older. Well, they have; sort of. Perhaps not surprisingly they focused on what they saw as the human angle rather than the book itself.
Ivy, of course, doesn’t come from HK but from mainland China. I hummed and hawed about whether to point this out, but in the end I didn’t. I have a couple of ATGO marketing ideas up my sleeve - more about those anon.
26 September
Terry O’Mahoney
Just before going to SfEP conference this year, I heard the news that my old university friend Terry O’Mahoney (the one on the left in the picture) died suddenly. It’s all rather sad. Even though I hadn’t seen Terry for - oh, twenty years - I shall miss him.
Terry O’Mahoney
1952-2017
23 September
SfEP conference
So that’s the 2017 SfEP conference over... and a jolly good one it was too. A lot of it was to do with the splendid location at Wyboston Lakes, but of course the hard work of the conference team putting together a good set of speakers and workshops made everything work.I stepped down as training director during the AGM that precedes the conference. Best of luck to my successor Jane Moody! And I managed to sell a dozen copies of As They Grow Older. That’s £12 to charity and £12 to SfEP’s Whitcombe Fund, which is used to fund proofreading training. Every little helps.
06 June
As They Grow Older (2)
I have today sent off three review copies of ASTG, two within the UK, the third to distant Malta. I gather the Ayrshire Bridge Union is going to feature the book in a newsletter, which is nice of them, and the SfEP has agreed that I can display them at their conference in September. Still lots to do, and I’m hoping to do more sensible marketing in August, some time before Halloween and while I’m taking a break from editing work. In the meantime, if you read this... you know what to do!
29 May
Mown down in Barcelona
I am not sure how I survived Barcelona. To begin with, it was stiflingly hot: mind you, when I got back to Ayr it was even stiflinger, to coin a new word. But at least in Ayr I am unlikely to be mown down by traffic. In Barcelona, I am. Or rather, I was. First I evade the cars, which are coming at me from the wrong direction. I quickly check that there’s no tram coming, too: I check in both directions because I haven’t figured out which way the trams are going in relation to the traffic. Phew. Safe. Safe? Not a bit of it, I have forgotten that there is then a cycle path where completely lunatic cyclists hurtle down, no doubt frantically ringing their bike bells, only I can’t hear them. Twice I was nearly run over by a cyclist (not the same one). And to cap it all... well. I worked out that cars go right around a roundabout, not left. That was mostly good, but then I discovered that on some roundabouts, you can go either way. So I gaily stepped out, having ascertained that nothing was coming, only there was, from the other direction. I observed cars going round the roundabout both ways: afterwards I figured out it was a roundabout on a one-way street. But I have survived. And I wrote a short story in sunny Barcelona, of which more anon.
18 May
More on rain
Some time ago, my youngest mentioned that it was ‘raining ants and spiders’ rather than cats and dogs, and we promptly derived a whole bunch of different animal-related categories of rain. Now there’s a new kid on the block: my other half told me that it was ‘chuckling down’ in Glasgow, the other day. Well, it does that in Glasgow, of course. But then I imagined the weather forecaster: ‘It will be damp and giggly in the south-west, with perhaps some chuckles in Dumfries and Galloway, but I’m afraid it will be guffawing on the east coast for most of the day, with possible bursts of hilarity in the far north. These will mean difficult driving conditions...’
07 May
SfEP mini-conference
I went along to the SfEP Scottish mini-conference on Friday. Actually, it wasn’t so ‘mini’, with some 90 delegates attending. I was supposed to be giving a brief presentation on SfEP training. So: ‘Hello everybody. I’m the training director, and I’m here to show you what training we offer and what’s coming up, so if I click to [You are not connected to the internet] Oh yes, the internet is a wonderful thing - when it’s working. The audience talked among itself while the in-house experts tried to get it up and running again. Then I was sidelined to make way for another presentation, while the experts talked among themselves, still trying to solve the problem. Eventually I was cancelled entirely, as they never succeeded in regaining a connection. Still, three good things came of it all. I got to introduce myself. The organiser was probably faintly relieved, as the conference was overrunning by some twenty minutes. I learned that it’s best not to rely on the internet for presentations. And even without my contribution, the mini-conference was a great success, much enjoyed by all. Many congratulations to Lesley Ellen and her team, who put it all together. Oh, and there was one other good thing - I sold a copy of As They Grow Older to a friend. But more of that in another post.
04 May
As They Grow Older
I have taken the plunge and self-published As They Grow Older. Duncan Lockerbie or Lumphanan Press helped with the typesetting and cover; and he outsourced the printing to a company down in deepest England to do the actual printing. A member of the SfEP did a proofread for me, given that it’s almost impossible to proofread your own material. I will be doing my best to promote the book over the coming months, leading up to Halloween. If you have children between the ages of about 5 to 15 and you like to read them spooky stories, you can’t go far wrong with As They Grow Older. A proportion of every sale goes to cancer research, too.
05 March
SfEP chartership
The big news at the SfEP is that we are going to try for chartership. This means that in due course you can become a chartered editor, or chartered proofreader. It means we will have a certified qualification, and all our courses will be accredited. Exciting, eh? But don’t wait up. It’s going to take years for us to get there. Years and years. One of the problems facing us is to try to determine the ‘editor’ population out there in the UK. That’s stumping us at the moment. Any ideas?
02 March
After a While
Okay, I admit it, I’ve neglected my blog for a while. Thing is, rather surreally, too much has been happening. Family numbers decreased by one when we lost my mother, then zapped back up to full strength when my first grandchild made an appearance. More of him anon, no doubt. My editing work has gone through the roof, and there’s been lots of SfEP activity - more of that anon, too. And on top of all that, I am in the process of setting up a website and selling a fully fledged self published version of As They Grow Older. Definitely more of that anon. Watch this space.
