A weary Monday and a Goldenford near-coup

Is it just me or are Mondays in the winter season becoming increasingly wearisome? I’d like to start a campaign to stop them altogether – I’m sure it would be much more beneficial for all if we could just go straight to Tuesday, or even Wednesday. Oh yes that would be better. I wish! Mind you, the feeling probably isn’t made any better by the fact that this is the first working day since the dark nights have come upon us. Groan.

This morning, I muddled through the small collection of emails waiting for me at work though, sadly, none of them have been from the Chair of the Induction Group meeting I minuted at lunchtime. So I had to go into the wretched thing with nothing but draft papers and a bright smile. Hey ho, so much for the organised professional, eh. Still, at least the sandwiches were nice.

So, this afternoon, my brain switched off and I attempted to get some of the minutes done. Heck, it’s been one of those days – not much happens and when it does it’s a bit dull or intense. Possibly both, at the same time.

Tonight, I’ll be catching up on the latest in “Strictly Come Dancing” (oh, Gabby, Gabby! – you shouldn’t have gone. I voted for you and am missing you already …) and also starting the edit on Jackie’s novel, Tainted Tree, ready for Goldenford’s 2008 book lists. Hey, we sound almost professional when I put it like that! It also means we’ll have a backlist of books too, which sounds even better.

Oh and, talking of which, I must just say that one of the judges of last year’s Guildford Book Festival Novel competition took Jennifer aside during this year’s festival and said how utterly marvellous Irene’s The Moon’s Complexion was (we entered it for last year’s competition but heard nothing …), and how much the judge in question had wanted to shortlist it – but the panel hadn’t heard of Goldenford and so left it out. Which does, I have to say, leave a sick taste in the mouth but not an entirely surprising one. We in the small/self-publishing field grow accustomed to such attitudes. Though how we long for the day when a book is judged on its own merits, not on where it comes from. Ye gods, but there’s been some trash produced from the big publishing houses – you’d think people would begin to realise by now that there’s really no need to be snobby about it. Just look at the Booker shortlist, eh (if I dare say it!) …

And I've just finished David Leavitt's While England Sleeps. Which is well worth a read - and has a wonderful main character who is really not very nice at all but who still manages to be sympathetic. Somehow. An Everyman of the human condition perhaps? After all, none of us could really, at heart, be classed as "nice". I did find the amount of sex he had rather tiring however - at one stage, he was living with his male lover, shagging a woman he was hoping to marry and cottaging throughout most of London at the same time. It was astonishing he had time to breathe! Let alone have a cup of tea. But thanks for lending it to me, Guy, and I shall return it to you via Jane soonest. I'm also looking forward to my next Leavitt, but hoping the sex might be scaled down!

Today’s nice things:

1. TV
2. Editing Jackie’s novel
3. Having a night in.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website