Jings! Things are all of a sudden much more real - its moved on from being an idea, a bit of research, and hours spent on the computer, to something tangible at last. The draft Information Sheet has been sent to me by the publisher. And. . . It includes the first draft of the book cover. Amazing.
Just about to set off for a meeting with the publisher. Brilliant.

Watch this space.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival

Here`s a date for your diary - Wednesday 25th August @ 11.00 in the Peppers Theatre. Thats when and where Ribbon of Wildness will have its first airing. So I guess I`ll have about 25 minutes to say a bit, read a bit, and enthuse a bit. The co-presenter will be Emma Wood, with her `Peatbogs, Plague and Potatoes`.

So get ready to book your seat(s) at this auspicious event! The Book Festival programme wil be out in due course, and booking arrangements advertised. A full-house would be very encouraging.

And then there wil be the formal launch in early September . . .

Final Edit!

Getting nearer, but not quite there yet!
Yes, I spent 3 days last week, refining, checking, reviewing, corretcting and even editing, but its not quite done yet. I`m pretty pleased with all that I`ve written -currently standing at about 86,000 words. The notion that `more is better` does not hold true here, so just adding more words to expand a point, or develop something new, would seem to be a bad idea. So I resolved to add no more.
Now I`m down to the finer points of punctiuation. This will make quite a difference to the flow and sense of it, so it will be worth the time and effort.
Guess what I`ll be doing this weekend?

About to embark on (what I hope will be) the final edit of the text - have set aside a few days, which I will spend in rural seclusion. Log cabin, wood-burning stove, laptop, pot of coffee and no distractions. Its almost as daunting as the day I set off on the long walk in January 2005. This time the thoughts are less about the unknown of what lies ahead: more about whether I`ve got this right. And the occasional thought of what the buying public, if there are any/many, will make of it. Too late now for any major changes. Each time I read the text, I`m pleasantly surprised with what I have written; thats a good indicator. So enough of this pondering - time to look out for typos, missing commas, mis-spellings of all those gaelic mountain names, and any contradictions or repatitions. Down to business on monday.