Eeeeeeek!!!!!!!!

Yes... that was me squealing with excitement!  

Last week I finally submitted my book to the printer and have been waiting on tenterhooks for the wire bound sample copy to arrive, which it did this afternoon.

I am beyond delighted with it, although I now have to go through it with a fine-toothed comb, searching for tiny errors which have eluded me on my laptop screen.  An initial cursory flick through has already revealed an unnecessary comma and a superfluous full stop, as well as an extra space in a sentence which looked fine on the screen, so I need to take my time and work slowly and methodically, even though my tummy is turning cartwheels at actually holding in my trembling hands the result of over a decade of false starts and self-recrimination.

I was worried about the photos, but they're mostly absolutely fine, although I will replace a few. All the images were taken in normal day-to-day working conditions in my workroom, not in a proper photographic studio setting, so I was concerned that they wouldn't pass muster but overall they are pretty good. 

I might tweak the front cover slightly too. 

Despite my desire to push ahead and get it signed off I'm going to take my time and actually enjoy the process, now that all the blood, sweat and tears of the actual creation have mercifully faded from memory.  

In the final fraught days before submitting it, I swore blind that I would never, ever, EVER do anything like it,  NEVER again.   However, while looking through the proof copy, I suddenly got the glimmer of an idea for a follow-up, going down a different and rather more scenic route.

I may have to give myself a stern talking-to...