I’m trying hard not to feel guilty about being ill. The bug that struck us down last week has been hideous, stopping everything in its tracks, including dog-walking, though I did manage to shuffle round the park once in the middle of it all. Otherwise my pup has had to manage with a mixture of friends, partner (also ill and shuffling) and no walks at all. She was very patient, though her look of disappointment when the afternoon walk fails to materialise would melt even the hardest heart.
My dear friend and ex-business partner calls this ‘grammar school mentality’: this urge to be at one’s desk, functioning, every day. Even though we’ve both been self-employed for many years, it’s ingrained so deeply that despite a dreadful attack of whatever-this-was, I still felt guilty for not checking my emails, organising my diary, or keeping up with social media. Or, indeed, writing — though that was out of the question.
The worst of it was, actually, not being well enough to read. Just about well enough to watch shed-loads of bad TV, but not well enough to pick up my Kindle. So yesterday I knew I was on the mend because I read a good few pages before subsiding back into my TV position on the sofa.
Since I was around seven years old, reading has been part of my life. Unable to sit in a waiting room without reading material, unable to go to sleep without first reading a few pages of my book, incapable of finishing one book without immediately starting the next: books have always been there in the background to distract and support me. So damn you, bad bug! You stopped me from reading for almost a week!
Anyway, the proof of recovery is right here, in this post — I am at least at my desk and typing. While I was laid up with the virus, my agent came back to me with editorial feedback on Book Nine; she’s provided some interesting feedback and thoughts on how to improve it. We’ve had a good chat about it, and though there’s quite a lot of editing to do, I’m convinced the book will be better for the changes she suggests. I’ll give more details of the kind of work that needs doing in a future post.
In the meantime, I’m going to rest and recuperate — and read!
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