I returned to life in the new year, with an unpleasant shock – the publishers hadn’t taken a holiday! And on the only day between Christmas and New Year (the 29th) they had sent me a zip file of changes. These were grammatical changes I had to verify and apply to my master copy of the text. Basically, it involved checking that the new words didn’t alter the meaning. I read this on Tuesday morning. The changes had to be made by Thursday. The same week.

So, thanks to two and half evenings, every train ride, and my lunch breaks (which I took in their entirety for the first time in years) I managed to make a reasonable review of all the changes. This was one of the first times the time difference between UK and the states actually worked to my advantage, as it meant that I would work until late Thursday evening, knowing the US office was still open.

After this manic spurt, all was quiet for the rest of the month. I checked over the 50 or so words on the cover on the 17th January 2005, and saw the first full cover PDF on the 21st. I then had a whole week “off” until the page proofs arrived, during which time I enjoyed the spoils of war by cashing my second advance cheque, on the 20th.