We were up raving early on Friday because the campervan had to go for its annual MOT. It’s still in the lockup over by our old house and while the mechanic asked us to get it to him ‘first thing’, the lockup doesn’t open until 8am, and then we had to jump start the battery when we got there.
We rolled up at the mechanic’s and then had to hang around for a while until a parking bay was free in which to leave the van. We couldn’t turn the engine off until we knew the mechanic could jump it with a booster, like ours. But once it was safely parked, we headed back home in my car, via an 8:30am checkup with the doctor for the poet, getting him home just in time for a 9:30am Teams meeting.
The lockup, the mechanic and the doctors’ surgery are way too far now. It took us the best part of an hour to get to the lockup and almost the same again to get the poet back for his meeting. If we can’t get the van alongside the house, we’re going to have to investigate a local storage facility not far from here.
I already identified a new mechanic. It’s where I took my car the week before last for my MOT, and it’s where I used to take it when we lived over here before. After this lot, the van will also be going to this garage for its repairs and maintenance.
We are reluctant to leave the doctors, though, as they’re definitely the best doctors we’ve had in a long while. Don’t forget, we lived here before so we already know what our new doctors will be like when we finally re-register.
While the poet went straight into his Teams meeting, I had a leisurely cuppa, played with the dog for a bit in the garden, then came to my desk and wrote Friday’s blog post. I thought I’d started it the day before at least, but I hadn’t. So it was a shorty. Once I’d posted it, I started today’s, as there’s no way I’ll remember everything if I leave it to today.
Next job on the list was Wordsworth Short 10 to republish. I’ve got a a checklist now to make sure I do everything in order, and the last item on the list is something I forgot to mention last week. My Gumroad store. I’ve had this store for ages but it was quite primitive when I first had it and I ended up taking everything off it again. With me going wider with my books, and with Gumroad looking a lot better than it did last time I was there, I decided to revive it and put my books up there as I go along.
All the republished Wordsworth Shorts to date are on there now, but the ones I republished last week and those I’m continuing to republish this week aren’t live yet, because they’re not live anywhere else yet either. The first one is due out on Monday 31 August, and then they’re all being drip-released a weekday at a time.
On Friday I had 6 new covers to make and 4 books to publish. This week I have a further 15 books to republish and 12 new covers to make. These include all the Wordsworth Shorts to #26 and 2 collections of ten. We have a week off then and when we come back, I’ll carry on for a couple of weeks.
It makes so much difference when you actually allocate time to do a job like this, instead of getting distracted from something else and heading off down a rabbit hole, and before you know it you have a dozen new covers for books you didn’t necessarily need with 5 versions of 2 of them because you couldn’t settle on the artwork! Because the time is planned already, the guilt layer isn’t there, the distractions are fewer, stress levels are lower, and gone is the constant thought that I should be doing something else. It’s so nice.
I have decided not to write anything new, though, until I’ve done all of this. That’s almost a hundred books I’m republishing. But the short stories I was going to write in August and September have fallen by the wayside. One of them was removed anyway, when I found out the publisher hasn’t been paying promised royalties. The others just didn’t excite me enough to keep them. The next scheduled short story I do want to write falls towards the end of October. And this week I start a new client edit.
I’d just finished the Wordsworth Short #10 job when the phone went. The van was ready, it had passed its MOT, and could we please go and get it. I made sure I was leaving everything in a safe place, and off we went. On the way back we stopped off at the daughter’s to pick up the poet’s tie and handkerchief for his suit on Saturday. When we got back, the window fitter was there finishing the repair job on the window frame. This time he did a good job and the poet was happy with it.
We all had something to eat, then I was back at my desk republishing Ten Short Stories: Wordsworth Shorts 1 – 10. I already had the new cover, and the new covers for all 4 volumes of 10. Once I’ve caught up, there will be a new collection of 25, Wordsworth Shorts 1 – 25. I’m only 4 away from having 50, so when those are written and published, I’ll do a second volume of 25, 26 – 50, the next book of 10, and a bumper volume of 50.
The individual short stories do really well with the lending libraries. The various collections actually sell well.
The collection took me the rest of the afternoon, and I still didn’t get it everywhere by the end of the day. I made a new print version too and when I was proofreading that I noticed a couple of inconsistencies, so I had to go back and fix all of those. It was almost 7pm by the time I’d finished, so I took the dog for a quick walk around the block while the poet went to get us a takeaway.
I didn’t have time to post today’s blog post, even though it was all written. I published it today instead.
This post appears on Words Worth Writing, Medium and Patreon.
That’s a lot to get done! It’s so hard to have to switch everything when you move, isn’t it? Especially when you like certain things that already work.
Good work on the republishing!
Thank you!