The root cause of all my problems

I’ve hit a small crisis with my book: inertia.

The paperback version of Beware the Falling Avocados is all but complete. The observant will have seen Wednesday’s post. I have the proof copy back. It looks fab. The cover is stunning, as anticipated. All the pages are there as I’d planned.

But, somehow, my mojo is failing me. I know I have to read it again – a final haul through the pages looking for errors, correcting wherever possible. I am fearful of starting this because (a) I will find mistakes (grrr…) and (b) I have probably developed a ‘blindness’ to so much of the writing and the way the book is set out.

Furthermore, I know I have to get the eBook ready too. From my experience with the last one, I know that this is a long haul. It is tedious rather than complicated: I just need to get down to doing it.

So why the inertia?

Is it because of my birthday? (Yes, I got a year older this week.) Slightly, but not much. The rest of the family almost ignored it.

Is it because of the shock of the deaths of Victoria Wood and Prince? Slightly, but not much. More and more celebrities are dying – younger than they should, often after a ‘short battle with cancer’. Though I didn’t know them personally, the world is a lesser place without them. (Watch The Ballad of Barry and Freda. Really. Repeatedly.)

No, I know why I have inertia. I know what to blame. I know why I am reluctant to sit at my desk and work; reluctant to pick up a book and find errors; reluctant to go and organise a book launch party. I blame… the sun.

Yes, the sun. Finally spring has sprung. The sun has come out. The world is beautiful, splashed with blossom, buds and the hope of new life.

Now I don’t want to work, but to be outside, walking the dog, smiling at the view from the top of a hill, or sitting in the garden reading a book with a cup of tea. Work?? Who wants to do that when in the sun is out?

[I hear there’s a cold snap coming. There is hope for a more constructive update next week!]