Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Reflexology and the publishing game

Another quiet day. Still, I decided to ring the changes and make graphs out of some of my Excel info. Rediscovering old skills was quite jolly, and it means I’m now the expert should anyone ever ask how many students emailed our helpdesk in any particular month and for what purpose. I’ve even done a comparison graph! Hey, I’m just rocking.

Had another reflexology session at lunchtime – I probably needed it more today as I was feeling quite tense and I think I’ve the beginnings of yet another cold. Hurrah. Nobody told me when I married Lord H thirteen years ago that I would be agreeing to have all the illnesses for the both of us for evermore. Bummer, eh? … No wonder he’s so damn healthy – it’s like Dorian Grey (Gray?) all over again except with sickness rather than looks. Hmm.

In the afternoon, and as there was no-one in the office but me for a couple of hours, I finally cracked and rang (yes, rang – and I soooo hate the ruddy phone!) Flame Books (http://www.flamebooks.com/) to try to find out if anything at all is happening to poor old “A Dangerous Man”. My editor seemed very preoccupied and not best pleased to have me squeaking desperately on the phone like a mouse on speed. Help! I’m obviously so low in the scale of things that I don’t even count as pond life. Still, I managed to ascertain that they hope that thirty copies will be available next week (as previews, I assume?) and they’ll let me know more later. Does the number thirty have some strange mystic significance of which I am sadly unaware? In any case, I was too terrified by then to ask anything else. Lord let it not be that they think there’s absolutely no market for it under any circumstances. Surely someone out there enjoys gay crime, art, sex and murder and will order vast quantities of the book from the safety of their PCs? One can only hope!! Either way, it’s all rather depressing and I am actually not enjoying this part of the process. I’d been thinking of arranging some kind of low-key launch party with the lovely Ottakar’s in Godalming (especially as no way am I going to darken the doors of the wretched “Surrey Bookshop” again …) but have rather lost heart for it at the moment …

However, the good new is that my agent (http://www.sff.net/people/john-jarrold/about.html) has sent “Thorn in the Flesh” out to lots of different publishers (what a hero!), so here’s hoping someone out there likes it. Please?...

This evening, Lord H is shopping (what an angel) and I’m out with the gals from my old firm for a Christmas dinner at Bel and the Dragon (http://www.belandthedragon-godalming.co.uk/) in Godalming. As I’m not drinking at the moment, it’s a shame I don’t live elsewhere as I could have given everyone lifts. Never mind. I’ll make up for it by eating like a pig. Ha! And as Jane H is also going, I can pick up my Nutrimetics (http://www.nutrimetics.co.uk/) stuff and start being a new woman. Hurrah indeed.

Today’s nice things:

1. Reflexology
2. Excel graphs
3. Hearing from John Jarrold.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk

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