Free advice to writers – don’t try and work on two versions of the same book at the same time.
A couple of days ago I laid out the proofs of the private family version of Surviving the Death Railway on the dining room table in order to proof read it (again) and create the index. An hour later the final proofs for the published version arrived in my inbox. I cannot resist work, so I will check these again too.
I have to occupy the dining room as there is no space left in my writing room and the state of it is making me feel ill.
And yes, my chair is an old block of polystyrene. It is a hangover from my sculpture days. It’s good for posture and it keeps the nether regions warm… but it has seen better days. I’m thinking of converting to a Swedish exercise ball.
The day before the proofs arrived, the marketing team for Pen & Sword got in touch and I have a five-page form to fill in. This is great because I will not be doing the promotion and marketing solo, a job I dread (and am very bad at). However, it is also a headache as I don’t know the answer to many of the questions (local radio? clubs and societies?), or they are tricky for a jack of all trades (short summary of career and education).
In between showers I rush into the garden, collect slugs, dig for half an hour and catch the spring. 
I barely get to emails at the moment and many of your lovely posts are unvisited, I will post this and go on a whistle-stop tour, but then I must get back to the indexing and the marketing forms. I am extremely lucky to have a publisher, but I am a little sad that there are so few hours in the day and that I am neglecting friends.
I have become multi-tasking superwoman – while writing this post I have printed off (one by one) another ten invitation cards to the second of the two launch parties for the book. Anyone near Cambridge let me know, I’ll send one, and you could come and enjoy sandwiches and sangria on the 18th of June (or near Taunton on 21st May for tea and cakes).
I have read the finals proofs… thank god I did, I found some errors I had missed and some gremlins that had crept in via the text editors.
Re tulips… the deep red flowers are Anemone de Caen masquerading as tulips!
Green Writing Room 
There will always be errors no matter how many times we proofread something.
I know, I know… but some matter more than others.
Major errors… I agree… small typos will always go unnoticed until the book is printed and then…
How did I miss that one!
Oh my gosh, Hilary. One version would be challenging enough. How can you keep the two things straight? Kudos to you!
Glad you caught the work of the gremlins. It never fails; you have to make that last check.
And what its that lovely blooming pink shrub I see?
Do NOT worry about getting to our posts. This is your time to attend to our books.
Its a little flowering cherry, it’s been in that tub for 30 years.
It is such a beauty. And was that a huge rosemary herb that I saw growing next to the bird bath in another post?
Yes, indeed it was, I think it likes being next to the bird bath, but it does keep growing over the path.
And that was meant to be “your” books.
It feels good to think of ‘our’ books. Writing, or rather the publication side, can be stressful, but it helps that others out there are working through the same things.
Well said. And to feel the support too.
Your tulips are lovely. Best wishes for rendering the writing room chaos into something that makes you feel calmer and able to be in there again. I am now wondering if an exercise ball might be just what my own back needs when I am working on my jewellery. I currently use an old folding deck chair, but it’s not the best for posture. Will you sculpt something new from the polystyrene block when it is demoted? Do you use it as a drafting medium and then copy in another material, or is it the final design and melts away when cast? Sorry if that’s one thing too many too consider just now!
If you go for the exercise ball, you need a bigger size than they recommend, as I got one, but it is too low for me at my desk, so I must get another one. I used to make sculptures out of anything, including polystyrene. The curved shapes in the sculpture labelled Plant Material http://hilarycustancegreen.com/Hilary_Author_Website/Sculpture.html
are polystyrene. I have an affection for this tatty old block, it has been with me for forty years, it will probably end up in the green house or shed.
It’s getting closer! Glad you’ll have a little help in the marketing department. Promotional activities can really bite into our time. Best of luck with things!
Ah, you understand. I feel as though I am juggling a lot more balls than I have hands, never mind brains. Having two launch parties seemed like a good idea at the time…
The writing room looks great, especially with the friendly up-right piano. The computer that I use sits on a piece of railway sleeper to give me a heightened and better vision in line with my tall and stooped posture. All the best with your upcoming launch of Surviving the Death Railway. I think the tulips are lovely and a good omen.
Thanks so much. Glad to see there is progress on ‘Almost There’.
I agree with gerard…the tulips are a good omen. I am weary just hearing what you’re going through. Breathe…look….listen….much love, 🙂
Thanks, I am managing 20 minutes meditation most days… and a little poetry.
You are truly admired for the work you do. Many of us wish we had your talent.
Thanks, this is really my parents work and I am… I was going to say I’m just the midwife, but realised that I have got into a chicken and egg situation.
Pen and Sword – the perfect publisher! It must be great feeling to have a partner for the promo.
My, such amazing blooms already. Didn’t know about flowering cherry, and that they bloom this early – what a delight.
Wish I’d known about your styrofoam block for my chapter on finding the right chair!
Pen & Sword have been fantastic so far. Polystyrene is the perfect material for an unheated studio!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a polystyrene desk chair before, how unique. Well done on spotting those errors and I’m glad you got a little time in the garden, I’m sure that was good for your concentration and sanity.
Indeed, my concentration and sanity are seriously dependent on the garden – and my patient husband!
I love the polystyrene chair, Hillary, complete with its warn grooves. Don’t worry about us out here. We are rooting for you. If I were wandering around near Cambridge, I would certainly be to your book kickoff. (Now I am in the midst of a Texas State park surrounded by thorny locust trees and mesquite. Tomorrow I will dash through the Dallas/Fort Worth area so I can escape back to the country.) –Curt
Thanks, I am sending soothing waves to your tired muscles.
So exciting to hear that you have a publisher to help you launch this latest book, Hilary. Congratulations and I wish you every success and hope you enjoy the launching off process. Love to see your photographs, inside and out.
Thanks so much. Its good to have you around again, even though I am so erratic in my visiting these days.
There’s a wealth of things I picked up on in this post, Hilary, but I’m afraid I have only one question – just what did you do with your slugs, once you’d collected them?!
This indeed THE important question. My neighbour (a woman of the cloth) snips them in two with a pair of scissors. Apart from the yuk factor and being a wuss, many of the slugs I collect are barely larger than ants, so I scoop them into our big green garden waste bin. Of course, the blighters are wizard escape artists and the bins are collected once a fortnight, so I am half of a non-stop comedy act, mostly wearing a dressing gown and wellingtons.
The really interesting thing is that we have lived here for 38 years. Until last year I had shared my garden quite amicably with the few slugs I met, but they are now a plague and eat most plants – to the ground.
Your garden looks lovely and you have so much proof reading to do as the weather improves. Am still trying to finish mine and dreading the editing.
Good luck with the finishing and editing. It’s one of those jobs that you just need to keep you head down and keep ploughing and amazingly you eventually arrive.
Thanks and will do now I have completed so much!
I am glad that you got to enjoy (and share with us) a few moments of beautiful spring. My travels have kept me away from a good spring since 2012, so I am enjoying experiencing it virtually.
Yours is a wonderful problem to have, but I can appreciate how frustrating it is not to be able to do all that you want.
And I love your ‘about ‘ in the side-bar. What an interesting, varied life you have had so far.
Good luck with the new book.
I have had so much luck in the way life has treated me so far. Good luck with your enterprising travels. One of my daughters sets off to distant lands whenever she feels inclined (as an artist she can take her career with her).
Like you, your daughter is a very lucky girl!
Love the garden. I’m intrigued by the Pen and Sword. I hope you’ll let us know how it goes (I’ve come to the realisation that I might sell other people’s books with reviews and recommendations but I don’t seem able to do the same with mine, so I have to find cleverer ways around it). The polystyrene sounds interesting… I can’t find a chair that suits me no matter what these days. I have a Swiss ball but I spend too much time sitting to make it work…
Proofreading… And of course the corrections introduce new errors sometimes. We can but try our best.
Thanks. Pen & Sword are just exactly the right publishers for this particular book – non-fiction military subject matter, but I know what you mean. It is very difficult to sell your own. Recently I found that I can sell my novels well at launch parties, but that doesn’t go far in the wider world. Maybe I will learn from this mainstream experience. I have a friend who sits all day at his computer on a (large) Swedish ball. It keeps him mobile and upright!
I never see my own mistakes, I love the red of those flowers I have a dress that colour. Your garden photos are lovely, I’m struggling keeping my pot plants alive!
I’m nutty about that red colour too. Don’t let the pot plants hassle you, go to a local florists and buy some small replacements – they’ll grow.
This is what must be meant by ‘creative chaos.’
I wish I were more sure about the creative bit.
I am not in the area, but just in case, what are the sandwiches made with? 😉 Seriously, Hilary, congratulations and enjoy it all!
Umm, my sister-in-law and daughter will decide for the Somerset one and I will decide – at least a week beforehand – for the Cambridge one. Thanks for the encouragement.
I’m out of breath reading this, because you’re out of breath writing and proofing and gardening and doing all the things a writer must do to…write and produce and publish. EXCITING.
You are right, it is very exciting, but I have moments when I crave the calm that will surely follow the storm… but not for several months.
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