Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Oooh!

Picked up a copy of The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street from Jen Hamilton-Emery on Sunday, at the Northen Salt reading in Manchester. It was nice to meet Jen and some other Salt authors (Andrew Philip, Steven Waling and Elizabeth Baines, whose partner, John Ashbrook, was kind enough to give me a free copy of his 1980 collection In the Footsteps of the Opium Eater). I'm afraid I missed the reading, having come straight from a family lunch in Buxton.

I sat there gobsmacked at having a proper book in my hands, with my name on it, eating whipped cream off the top of a mocha. Later, I sat on the train home and read some of John's book (which I liked, not least for its 1980ish concerns) and, of course, all of my own. So far I've gathered the following stats:

Number of typos I've spotted so far: 1 (p55)
Number of sloppy punctuation moments: 1 (missing comma)
Number of words I wish I'd taken out: 1 ('a')
Number of unusual words infelicitously repeated a few pages apart: 1 ('occluded')
Proportion of myself trembling with joy: 1

6 Comments:

Anonymous Jim Sheard said...

*stormy applause in the hall*

Mind you, the repetition of 'occluded' probably means that I won't buy it...

No, no! No undercutting of the moment. This is a cause for unfettered celebration, and I am delighted for you.

11:49 AM  
Blogger Ben Wilkinson said...

Many congrats, Tony. You must be especially pleased that Salt published it; beautifully and stylishly produced as their books are. The cover to yours is particularly impressive, I think (and I'm not just saying that because I connect with the title). Looking forward to the launch.

2:32 PM  
Blogger Tony Williams said...

Thanks Jim!

And thanks Ben - yes, I'm delighted with the *book* itself. See you on the 29th.

2:53 PM  
Blogger Ben Wilkinson said...

And I'm sure with the poems inside (!), which (he hastens to add) I greatly look forward to reading.

best for now, B

9:26 PM  
Blogger Elizabeth Baines said...

It was lovely to meet you, Tony, and I so look forward to your book!

9:15 PM  
Blogger Tony Williams said...

Lovely to meet you too, Elizabeth – sorry to miss your reading. Glad your sister likes the novel! Family readers are a funny thing – I'm more worried about my in-laws than my own family though.

11:08 AM  

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