Reading proofs
It is very hot today and I feel disinclined to do anything other than sit and stare at the garden. However, the proofs of my anthology, BETWEEN SANITY AND MADNESS, have arrived and I must face the task of going through them. Proof reading is an art, and one that I do not have. It requires patience and methodical study, both of which I lack. And there is an extra problem for the writer. Re-reading your own work always brings on bursts of dissatisfaction and self criticism. With poems it is almost worse. The inclination is to change a line here, or a word there and the moment something is altered, everything about it looks wrong. It is almost worse with an anthology because these are poems I wrote some time ago and it is something of an ideal going back over old work.
So I have subjected two friends to reading the poems. These were friends I felt would give me an honest appraisal. Thankfully both of them have been enthusiastic and complimentary. So with a great sigh I have settled down to the task of proofing – heat or no heat. If all goes well the small booklet should be on Amazon in the next week or two.
My next task is a far larger one, that of proof reading the second book of the trilogy, TRIANGLES IN SQUARES. For that I am thinking of getting in a professional!