Readers all over the world! Well, one in Canada, a couple elsewhere and the rest in the UK, but it’s a start.
I have had a busy week of writing and keeping to a deadline. This meant that the WIP had to take a back seat. Over the course of the week, I have been a news reporter, editor, publisher and subscriber. How? The job of producing a newsletter for an old pupils association landed onto my laptop when I was late for an Old Eds meeting and couldnt wriggle out of the task. This is the second time Ive arrived a few minutes late to find out that I have been lucky enough to be honoured with a role.
The first time I arrived late, I was greeted with a round of applause and informed that I had been made vice-chair. This was painless because the vice chair didnt have to do anything except show up. Showing up late has dangers but, earlier in the year, I was delayed yet again and walked in to a ripple of applause and Oh, shes here our new editor! I found that, on this occasion, my writing skills had been well exaggerated by old friends who remembered my eagerness to make contributions to the school magazine, Avancez. On this fragile basis, the committee was totally confident that the continuity of the quarterly newsletter would be safe in my hands.
Is it just me who finds that, when I am late for something, I am more likely to agree to decisions made in my absence? Now that Im Vice Chair and Newsletter Editor for the association, I will never be late again; I dont have time to take on another role! Guilty confession when one of my closest friends was unable to attend, a few of us volunteered her to be guest speaker at the next dinner. Maybe I got off lightly.
I did nothing about my new role for a couple of months and, with publishing day a week away, I had no contributions. Panic! A quick search of the internet and the local paper archives and a frantic ring around of old school friends brought in plenty of raw material and a rush to shape something up. The week has been filled with writing all of the articles and deciding on the layout. I even had to do the back page full of sports news not my forte. I have to admit that, yes, playing at newspapers has been fun, but Ill be delegating sections in plenty of time for the next edition! It took over four days to finish so I hope it is well read before it becomes a fire lighter or chip wrapping.
A few hundred copies have been posted all over the UK and abroad. I have readers! Now to transfer that skill to my fiction and get on with the WIP.