Wednesday 15 Mar 2023: A better day

Tuesday was better. What more can I say? Other than it wasn’t difficult.

Again, much of the day was spent on the hard-copy edit. I only had 18 pages to go but they weren’t as polished as the previous pages and, again, I had a lot of interruptions.

The biggest interruption was the Monkey Dust gig that was cancelled. I had to create new posters for Facebook and Instagram, as well as the regular gig poster, with CANCELLED stamped across them. I waited until the cancellation was confirmed, and then had to go in and share all of these posters as well as write an announcement that also had to be shared everywhere. Almost immediately another venue was suggested, and various text messages went between everyone, because the band had already been told they could have the night off and now they were being asked if they wanted to do this alternative venue.

Everyone, it seemed, was keen to get Monkey Dust on at this other venue, apart from the venue-manager’s partner. We were told to leave it with him until at least the end of the day. So that’s what we did.

While that was to-ing and fro-ing, I entered a few competitions and I started work on a short story that was due in, well, yesterday… I already had the first draft hand-written and edited. I just had to type up the second draft and add around 400 words in the process.

When the poet came home from work we had to set about emptying the conservatory (or he did, I helped when called). The current conservatory leaks so much that even the opening windows have been sealed shut with sealant. Rain was still getting in, though. It simply crept along the cracked framework until it found another way in. So the carpet has been wet, or damp at best. We had to move all of our furniture away from the windows because the rainwater penetration literally splashed all over everything, and we couldn’t put any window dressings up because they would have been soaked.

Today at 8am, workmen were due to take the old conservatory down and put a new conservatory up, retaining only the walls and the window boards of the original. So we had to move everything into the house. That included:

• a 3-seater settee
• 2 armchairs
• 1 fireside chair
• numerous scatter cushions
• a nest of 3 coffee tables
• 2 tall electric fans
• a magazine rack
• a large wall clock
• the tumble dryer
• 2 wooden battens the tumble dryer was standing on

He managed most of it by himself, but some of it I had to help him with and some of it had to go out into the garden to come in through the patio doors in the dining room.

By the end of the day we were still awaiting confirmation from the potential alternative venue, but I finished the hard-copy edit (yay!) and I read the short story out loud to the poet after we had tea. It came in at just under the target length by around 5 words, so I gave it another quick polish and off it went.

Yes, folks, a brand-new short story went off on its rounds last night, just in time for the deadline for the June issue of the magazine. Saying that, it’s a ‘summer’ story so it will suit June, July or August, or even a summer special or an annual. Or I think it will in any case. It’s also an ‘evergreen’. If it comes back, I have at least one more commercial market lined up for it, and if it comes back from there, I’ll release it as a standalone Wordsworth Short and it will enter into that particular process.

Even if it’s accepted, I’ll release it next year, because a publication credit at the front always adds additional kudos, I think. But if it’s rejected with comment, then at least I can consider any changes before taking it any further.

Keep everything crossed that the editor likes it.

And that was Tuesday. It was busy all day, but busy doing only a few jobs.

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