Ordinary life is already creeping in: this week I had an urgent e-mail order from Bertram's for the second edition of The Birth Machine, the revised edition I published myself. And what do you do about that, when you are your own publisher but you're away, and although you always keep a few copies of your books in the back of the car, you have only two of that edition of that particular book with you because anyway you more or less consider it off the market and out of print, since a lovely new edition is due from Salt this autumn? Suggest they wait until copies of the new edition are available at the end of September, you might say (and I did). But no, the order's too urgent, and you have to find an old jiffy bag somewhere and sellotape it up with the two copies and a promise to complete the order when more copies are available (ie when your partner finishes painting the outside of the family house on the mountain and you can both go back to Manc).
And speaking of family, I even had a break from the novel this week, as other family members joined us, and we went for very long walks. Here's a sunset we saw one night on the beach (horizon's not very straight!)...
