Ah, lovely. After today, I have the rest of the week off, so essentially I have a five-day weekend, beginning . . . well, just as soon as I get out of here today, which will probably be around 3pm. Unless I can justify leaving a bit earlier, which might be the case.
That technical problem that I mentioned the other day? Fixed, as of yesterday. We were looking at all kinds of things for the cause, and the root of the problem turned out to be a single entry of incorrect data in a database table. I’d never have spotted it, had it not been for someone pointing out that one page on the web application’s display didn’t look right; that was the key.
So that particular fire is out, and that’s left things a little bit quiet around here this morning. I have a couple of small tasks on one project that will need doing, but I can’t touch them until the analyst gets in, which won’t happen for another half hour, probably. The other major project I was involved with has been reshuffled and now I’ll just be consultant for that. And I have another major project coming up, but there’s nothing doing on that until we have a kick-off meeting later today. So, right now, I have a bit of breathing space. Hence a few minutes to post something here, while listening to Vortex Rikers on the headphones.
Tomorrow, then, I’ll be able to get back to writing. Five whole days, during which I should be able to finish the copy edits on Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia. I’m a little way into Chapter 10 (same place I was the other day—I haven’t had time to work on it), so I’m on the home straight. Chapter 9 needs a polishing pass before I return it to my editor, and I also got Chapter 1 back from the line editor the other day; I haven’t looked at it yet, so I don’t know how much work it’ll need—but it won’t be as tough as the first round of copy editing. I hope. So the plan is, finish chapters 10, 11, and 12, polish them and send them off, then get into line edits. It should be a productive few days.
Pete Ford 