January is over already. Despite the continuing UK lockdown, time seems to be flying. I returned to work after a lovely, relaxed break for Christmas and New Year’s, and I have been fortunate to have a full work schedule. The West Surrey and North Hampshire CIEP local group had a catch-up towards the end of the month; we talked about our goals for this year – as hard as it may be to think of them in the precarious situation we all find ourselves in at the moment – and I’ll return to mine later in this post.

What I’ve been working on

My first project of the new year was the proofread of some American contemporary fiction. I work on a lot of contemporary British fiction, so it was interesting to work on a novel based in the US and by a US author. I moved on to the copy-edit of a novel by an author I have had the pleasure of working with before – the novel was an atmospheric Gothic horror reminiscent of the work of Laura Purcell. January ended with the proofread of a fantasy novel about angels and demons, and I am still working on a critique of the beginning of a fantasy fiction novel. I usually critique full manuscripts, so this will be another new and interesting experience.

What I read for fun

I’ve got one completed read to report and two partial reads. The completed read is Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes – I wasn’t going to miss out on psychic cats in space. It took me a while to fully engage with it but it is funny and fast-paced, and has a cast of likeable characters. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke) is a very, very long novel, and that is my excuse for not having got anywhere near finishing it yet. It is, though, reminding me why I loved the BBC adaptation so much. My other not-yet-completed read is Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. I am aware I have probably approached the Grishaverse in the wrong order (I started with Six of Crows) but the upcoming Netflix adaptation has encouraged me to fill in some of the blanks.

Looking ahead

As I mentioned above, we talked about our goals for this year at the West Surrey and North Hampshire local group Zoom meeting. (I hope that in-person meetings can resume before the end of 2021.) I have two aims for 2021. One is a thing I do every year – complete one formal training course as part of my continuing professional development. The other is to make sure that I balance work with time off – I worked a lot of Saturdays and Sundays last year, and I am going to try to minimise that this year. It’s time to reclaim my weekends.