October wasn’t the most exciting of months. I took Oscar for his dental check (he doesn’t need a clean yet – back in six months) and I went for Sunday lunch at a local pub. Halloween passed us by. We were okay about that.

What I’ve been working on

I finished off the critique of an urban fantasy novel I started in September, and I completed the copy-edit of a multi-perspective murder mystery. I moved on to my first on-screen proofread using BSI marks. I’ve been teaching students how to do this for years, so it was great to put those techniques into practice for a full set of proofs. I still prefer to mark up by hand, but that’s a dying art, I think.

I’ll have the critique of a dystopian magical fantasy manuscript to take me into November, as well as the copy-edit of a darkly satirical absurdist speculative action thriller – it’s almost a genre all of its own.

What I read for fun

I was really excited to start Rebecca Thorne’s Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea – a cosy fantasy about a bookshop and dragons should be the novel of my dreams. It didn’t quite hit the spot for me. It’ll take a lot of knock Legends & Lattes off its perch, in my opinion.

Looking ahead

November will be a busy month for work. I’m hoping, though, that the weather will be good for my visit to the illuminations at Guildford Castle.