I keep forgetting to remind you that you can now COMMENT on this newsletter at its Substack home. Please do, if the spirit moves you to do so. I love it when I’m temporarily persuaded that I am not, in fact, just screaming into the void.

Also, completely separate from all this press stuff, I’m now managing the 2022 First Novel Prize. So if you have never been traditionally published, and if you’ve completed a novel that is marketable to an adult audience, why not consider sending it in? The deadline for submissions is 31 May.

Monday, 31 January

Massive push forward today, both personally and professionally, as I know I have a lot of time in the car coming up this week (going to Norfolk to oversee the ongoing renovation and meet up with a couple of builders). Really, though, I’m on a general big forward push, because I have to go on yet another enforced holiday in a couple of weeks, because it’s already time for half term. I’m not sure how anyone with a normal job manages having children, to be honest.

So: today was everything from taking my husband’s dog to the vet, to approving The Workshop of Filthy Creation in audiobook (EDIT to add: it’s now for sale!), to approving and purchasing final book proofs for The Transfer Problem (EDIT to add: it’s now available for pre-order!), to decluttering my sitting room, to replacing my children’s missing school uniform bits, to going to the post office to mail ARCs of Chocolate Cake for Imaginary Lives to some amazing high-profile readers, to tying to sell Siôn to an agent, to doing (gasp) a load of laundry.

By my estimation, that work would concern at least 4 different departments in a large publishing house (not to mention the stuff that wouldn’t be part of a typical publisher’s remit!).

Tuesday, 1 February - Wednesday, 2 February

What happens in Norfolk stays in Norfolk.

Thursday, 3 February

Today I did some stuff I’ve been putting off for far too long, allowing me to procrastinate about an even bigger thing I’m trying to put off.

[I could swear there was a Simpsons where Bart does one piece of homework to procrastinate on another, and I was going to drop that clip here, but I couldn’t find it, so all that I achieved on that front was watching some golden-age Simpsons on YouTube. You’re so happy for me.]

I look forward to all of my new business cards, my new book-matching bookmarks for TFP and Chocolate Cake, and the final-final paperback proof of TFP finally coming through my letterbox. Meanwhile, have a look at this beauty:

deixispress

A post shared by Deixis Press (@deixispress)

That’s the hardback; click through to see the fantastic neon green case peeking out from under that dreamy front cover.

We’re looking for SF/thriller reviewers for The Transfer Problem; we have a pretty good list of people to approach, but if you have any ideas, do let me know. I think Adam would be a interesting guy to interview on a podcast, or write a guest article, and the ideas in this book are so much fun (and scarily close to reality).

Friday, 4 February

Marc Joan has been doing the hard work of sourcing an illustrator to create original art for the Hangdog Souls cover. He has some specific ideas that I think will add up to something really quite wonderful. One artist has come back with a beautiful sketch, and I’m getting really excited about it all.

Today I’ve got to do the big thing, which is to finalize the After Silence manuscript ready for printing. I now have allllllll that I need in order to do every last little bit of it, from top front left pixel to bottom back right pixel. I’ve done all of the minor bits on my to-do list. I had a goal for the week to finish the book. It’s typeset; the bits that are left are minor edits and adding in some front and back matter. There is nothing standing in my way.

It’s 2:49pm and I still haven’t done it

I think I’m going to do it next week. Yes, a nice artificial deadline for myself ahead of going on enforced holiday. (If I follow my plan, I will literally FINISH my press to-do list next week—that’s right, a visible basket bottom—which would leave me all the time I could ask for to read for the First Novel Prize while I’m on vacation.)

Yours,

Angel