Approximately-weekly news, #46
On Substack for the first time, and always free to read
Well, here we are. Hooray!
Please forgive me any early Substack hopelessness. Here’s a photo of Harris to mitigate any annoyance/confusion with the change of platform:
I’m hoping to have a bit more space to play over here, as well as saving a bit of money (which I will obviously wisely invest spend on tea and knitting paraphernalia).
I’m also going to import all of my old newsletters, so you will be able to go back through the archive and laugh at the time I really thought I was going to make over a thousand tiny crochet squares and sew them into a blanket. Good times, my friends, good times.
The knitting update you’ve been waiting for
I have finally taken some photographs! And I have also finished some socks. After last year’s self-imposed sock club, taking a leisurely three months to knit a pair of socks feels positively decadent. Here they are. Pretty, huh?
The how-Stephanie-spends-her-time scarf is coming along nicely, too. A reminder: each 2 rows represent a day, and each colour represents the activity that dominates a particular day. For example, red is writing, beige is a non-working day. Yellow is for research and planning, which often comes before and after a big fat chunk of writing. A mottled blue is starting to appear: those are my writer-in-the-world days, writing articles or doing interviews. As the paperback publication of THE SECOND CHANCE BOOK CLUB draws near, expect more of it…
In other making news, I have pickled some carrots. Not a euphemism. The recipe is here.
I might not have to cut off my hands and go and live in a cave after all.
Which is a needlessly melodramatic way of saying, THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed THE SECOND CHANCE BOOK CLUB, and/or has been in touch to let me know they have read and enjoyed it. I don’t take this for granted: after all, there are So. Many. Books. Here’s a review that made me blush, then cry, then feel Quite Wobbly. Because it always feels like a bit of a miracle when the story you want to tell gets out of your head, onto the page, then back off the page and into someone else’s head, and somehow, they not only get the story, but understand the place in your heart that it comes from.
I don’t know what my face is any more.
I went for an eye test at the weekend, and needed new glasses. I spent a good half hour trying on all of the glasses in the shop, assisted by an indefatigable and excellent young woman named Poppy. After the first ten minutes I barely recognised myself. After twenty minutes I had the feeling that you get when you have written the same word down so often that none of it makes sense, except with bits of my face. (Why have I never noticed how weird noses are before? Has my chin always been there?)
So if you come to one of my upcoming book events (in Newcastle, Alnwick, Malton or Wetherby) and I am sporting eyewear that Elton John would consider to be A Bit Much, please understand that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing by the time I made a final decision.
A nice thing about this confusing experience was that it reminded me of one of my favourite plays, Tom Stoppard’s ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’:
GUIL: (Rapidly.) Has it ever happened to you that all of a sudden and for no reason at all you haven't the faintest idea how to spell the word—"wife"—or "house"—because when you write it down you just can't remember ever having seen those letters in that order before...?
Forgive me if I’ve told you this before, but I saw it for the first time in London when I was an intense and bookish 17 year old. It was one of the best days of my teenage years. Right up there with seeing Duran Duran in Edinburgh.
Finally, announcements.
Paperback copies of THE SECOND CHANCE BOOK CLUB are going to be available in the UK on 24 April, in the US and Australia on 29 July. Your local bookshop will be happy to pre-order you a copy, as will the various internet places. Translation news as I have it.
If you’d like a signed and dedicated copy of THE SECOND CHANCE BOOK CLUB, or any of my other novels, just let me know. I can even giftwrap one and send it to a friend on your behalf.
I’m interested in hearing about your experiences of reading aloud: reader or audience, adult or child, sickness or health, good or bad. And also, whether you have any favourites for reading aloud. Which books sound better in the air?
I’ve got one slot to take on a new mentee and one unexpected edit/read and review slot for July. Hit me up if you want to know more.
Until next time, be well, my friends.
Stephanie x