I got a telephone call this afternoon to let me know that more pre orders have arrived. I’m keeping a tally now though it is still daunting how many are still to go to the target of 1,000 sales. Every little helps. I also hope that these aren’t orders that will come back making use of the sale-or-return facility. It’s still a very nervous time for an author, and for the people who’ve put up the money to get this behemoth on the road.

I’ve been distracting myself when I can by doing a new draft of an old book. I always liked the story that was in ‘The Atlantic collection’; in some ways it is my favourite book. The only trouble is that I felt a little embaressed about the standards of the writing given how much I’ve moved on over the last couple of years. So I’m doing a new edition. Not because anyone’s asked me to, but because I want to. Some parts aren’t needing much, but others are getting rewritten.

This week’s other distraction has been Bosun #3 out in the back garden. When I set out to buy one of these I tried my hardest to get one with a sound transom, as a rotton core is the Achilles heel of this type of boat. Unfortunately, what I got was a boat that had had transom rot bodged and hurriedly hidden. It isn’t a disaster, but I’ve slowly been putting what I’ve found right. I took the opertunity to strip the horrible household emulsion off the transom and sand and repait with proper yachting enamel after effecting a few repairs. One of the first things I noticed when the paint was coming off were some red letters on the original fibreglass surface. On closer examination they spelt out: “The New BOSUN” in stencilled red letters. This confirms what I already knew that this had been a demonstrator for the builders (along with around fifteen other boats) and was used to secure a contract for several thousand of the craft over the years with the Royal Navy and other organisation.

Right now I’m listening to the song ‘Happiness’ by Goldfrapp. I’m hoping that the Karma is justified after learning of the pre orders. Fingers crossed for the future (and buy my book!)