Day 4. Sharing in real time

Transcript

Hello, micro-memoir people. I’ll keep it short today. It’s Thursday, the 5th of November, and I’ve enjoyed getting your messages back. I really have.

There’s a lot I could say about various technical ideas I’ve swapped with some of you, but I’ll stick with that. I’ve enjoyed it.

I’m particularly glad to have heard from a couple of you who’ve been quiet for a while, for perfectly understandable reasons. It’s lovely to hear from you and from everyone. I want to make sure that you’ve got what you need. I’m not putting on undue pressure, but you know that I’m here all the time.

I enjoyed the glimpse of you working late at night with a cat beside you, one of you, or working in a cabin somewhere remote. I think that’s what you said, where the Wi-Fi isn’t great. I think that’s what you said, but I’m not working from notes here.

I enjoyed thinking about where you are, and that’s partly why I’ve been leaving these notes with photos of where I am in North London, where the trees are turning orange. Or this, on the table beside me:

Notebook, plug-in audio equipment and mug.

But I thought I would also share something that I’m putting out there myself. It’s not scary, exactly, because I’ve done this kind of thing a lot, but it is real, and it may not come off.

So it does feel like a mild bit of jeopardy to share it.

You know about the article that’s going into the Guardian on the 2nd of January – allegedly, probably, possibly. It’s unusual for me to say anything about that in advance, because I’ve been burned too many times by newspapers and magazines deciding not to run something. So that may happen.

But the latest news is I got an email back from the Guardian’s picture editors. There are two of them. I think it’s a job share. And this one thanked me for dropping off the copies, said it’s a lovely book, and that the drawings will be great to run in the piece to find the humour in such a serious subject. And then there were some details about lining up a photographer to take my portrait.

So I’m telling you this today, Thursday, the 5th of November, to say, yes, it’s me, sharing things with you in real time. I’m conscious of the privilege of you sharing your work in progress, and I hope you understand why I’m telling you about mine.

It is intended to give you strength to keep going. We have 30 days to pull off this book.

Thank you for listening.

jp at this domain name.