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Oh gosh reading this now and wondering how you feel in compassion to now on the book stuff towards the end of the year?

Iā€™m also really connecting to the (possible) future of calm weekends after having my hands in a toilet u bend today, smashing a glass spaghetti jar full of pasta on the kitchen floor and clearing up a bathroom flood. The first and last were caused my by toddler, I think my subconscious just let the spaghetti jar go to show me how I felt on the inside! šŸ˜‰

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OMG, that is EXTRA! Yes, the spaghetti an external manifestation of internal trauma! I know those days too well, what with The Wall and other domestic drama this week. But we shall prevail...

How do I feel now... Well, *so* happy that I did this! And that I'm doing what I'm doing with the manuscript on here now.

I am having such fun each week as I edit the episodes, put together the bonus material and think about how it can beat connect to the reader. I do think that it lends itself really well to being a serialised memoir and that the book (if it's picked up!) will inevitably be a different beast.

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So good to read this! I find the self promotion stuff really difficult too despite some excellent help from the Scottish Book Trust a few years back. I had almost forgotten how naive I was when I was first published! You mean we do the publicity?! I also love the idea of a good healthy work place rather than necessarily a well paid one. Going part time has meant I have time with family, time with the dog, time to write! Wonderful... and i am about to have five days off work. Looking forward to some long sleeps, though that might need to include going back to bed when the children have left for school!

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Graham, I hope you made the very best of those five days off work! Yes, I work at SBT and can wholeheartedly vouch for how work/life balance and the ability to safeguard my mental health always trumps the pay. I feel since writing this post nearly a year ago now that I've become far less queasy about the self-promo stuff, but possibly the trade-off is viewing life through a 'content' lens?!

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The five days have been wonderful, a bit of work on my next book but mainly dog walks, painting sitting rooms, tidying cupboards and a shed and lots of trips to the dump! Yes the constant awareness of content risks turning life into a story and while I like stories I sort of hope life is richer than that!

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