Sunday 1 April 2012

Solitary Sunday's proof-reading

It’s a rather solitary Sunday for me today as I’m sitting (not hunched) at the desk proof-reading and fact-checking two of my next books. I’ve dealt with the most urgent emails and am eagerly waiting for a few replies. The morning sped past in a blur of misplaced commas and I took an early afternoon walk in the sunshine that was too bright and tempting to ignore. Back in front of my computer now and I’m trying hard to concentrate on getting through the text, though as my neighbour is hammering away at an unpredictable syncopated rhythm, it’s proving difficult to ignore. Still, the texts are improving in their appearance and some pages look reassuringly clean, bright and printer-ready. I make notes in the margin in hard copy and highlight anything in blue in the word-processed version that looks a little odd or where words might be missing. Checking through both seems to eliminate almost all errors. Both texts are very keen on food and feasting, so I’ve taken a quick break to put together some banana bread for a cut and run breakfast next week. Not that the books do banana bread, they concentrate on pink-iced cakes (are there any other kind in vintage fiction?), scones, jam, cream (clotted or double), sandwiches with elaborate fillings, chocolate and tea. They do make you feel hungry, especially for scones, jam and cream.

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