February felt like a very short but busy month at Black Cat HQ. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of projects come my way. Around my editing work, I managed to fit in a lovely afternoon tea with my sister and a few days in the beautiful county of Yorkshire. The unseasonably warm weather, while worrying for the future, made it a very pleasant trip.

What I’ve been working on

I completed the proofread for the PhD thesis I started work on in January. The end of this overlapped with the edit of a sci-fi/horror novel for a well-established independent author. I don’t often get to edit science-fiction, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. And I don’t often edit US English – although I frequently proofread it – and to do so with this project was an interesting departure from the norm.

My next project was the proofread of a story exploring the idea of eternal love. Parts of it were set in a country in east Africa and parts of it took place in the UK – a juxtaposition that was used to good effect.

I have two projects on my desk as I write this, and they will take me into early March. Both are fiction, but strikingly different. The first is the story of a rural village’s fight against the development of communal land. The second is an epic re-telling of a doomed medieval romance.

The CPD session

The West Surrey and North Hampshire SfEP local group held a continuing professional development session on professional practice. It was, in theory, led by me (not a role that comes easily) but I was pleased – although not surprised – that the group members were chatty, enthusiastic, and generous with their thoughts. We shared ideas and techniques for a wide range of interactions with clients and focused heavily on the paperwork we use (such as project agreements, style sheets, and feedback forms). I have to say I found the session extremely valuable. I will be making changes!

Looking ahead

The West Surrey and North Hampshire local group has a lunch meeting in early March. A few days after that, I will be off to London for the fiction mini-conference. The line-up looks brilliant, and I am really looking forward to it. I am hoping to find the session on helping self-publishing authors particularity useful. A day or so later I will be back in London, with a couple of my favourite SfEP colleagues, for the London Book Fair. We went last year and had a great time. I expect to be completely knackered by the end of March.