Well, May has been (on a personal level) a distinct improvement on April. After more than a few tests, my sister has finally been declared negative for COVID-19. I probably don’t need to tell you that it is a huge relief.

I decided to jump on the Zoom bandwagon and set up a meeting for the West Surrey and North Hampshire Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading local group. We ‘met’ for a couple of hours, and it was lovely. It was great to see so many familiar faces, and I was pleased to hear that our members are generally coping as well as can be expected in the current circumstances.

What I’ve been working on

I spent a good chunk of May on a critique of a YA (young adult) epic fantasy novel. The author was a delight to work with, and I am very pleased that I was able to give her helpful advice on how to elevate what is already a good novel. The rest of the month was spent on the copy-edit of a sci-fi thriller, set on board a Royal Navy warship. It’s one of the most complex fiction edits I have taken on, but the story is compelling and I’m enjoying helping it to shine.

What I’ve been reading

I’ve been taking my mum to radiotherapy appointments every weekday for a couple of weeks now and my Kindle has been my companion while I wait. I’d picked Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth – a book that deftly combines necromancy, spaceships and lots of swearing – because I thought it would be a compelling, funny, wild ride. It is those things, but I didn’t realise it would be quite as devastating as it is.

Looking ahead

I will, hopefully, be getting back into the swing of having a full workload (despite the continuing lack of projects for publishing houses). I’ll organise a July Zoom meeting for the CIEP local group as it’s unlikely in-person gatherings will be allowed any time soon.