At the end of a long and exhausting week at work, it was lovely to leave it all behind and settle down at my own computer, where I can get back to Writing Matters. I felt I deserved a treat this evening – the first week of returning to work after the summer break, is the one week I least look forward to of all the fifty two. I’ll tell you about the treat that was waiting for me, once I’ve got this rant off my chest.

Nothing changes, when it comes to preparations for the autumn term in Adult Education – it’s always hectically busy, and there’s always new information that we, the middle managers, must explain to the hard-pressed tutors at pre-enrolment meetings, with little or no time to digest the implications of the increased complexity of the paperwork they’ll have to use. And, as usual, the printed versions of all the documents they must learn to use and love, are not yet ready for distribution.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose - I had to look up the second part of this, because once someone knows that saying, the first three words are usually enough. And that’s enough of my (very long ago) school-girl French.

The biggest difficulty for me at this time of year, is trying to shunt my brain back onto the right track, so it can deal with everything I have to accomplish before next Monday. My memory of all the tasks I had planned for so clearly and carefully at the end of July had dissolved into dreamlike mist, as if a decade had passed, instead of just one month.

That’s definitely enough of that. And anyway, it’s not really all that bad. Just that I’d far prefer to be writing a novel or a poem, and for the next few weeks, I’ll be up to my eyes in ‘work’ work.

It feels like a long time since I’ve mentioned anything about my own novel writing. The last time was in my post
Transita and a Change of Title

The treat I’ve come home to was clicking on to one of my favourite writing sites - Essential Writers - and there it was, the article that Judy had invited me to write. It fills in the few months between having my book accepted by the publisher, and the actual publication date.