Networking

I spent the afternoon at the London Book Fair. I'd arranged a meeting with the very kind person who gave me my first freelance job to thank her for giving this newbie a chance. It was the kind of work I really love, too, so I'm keen to do some more of that. We had a great chat (we've never met) and it turned out that we'd worked in a couple of the same companies (although not at the same time) and had mutual colleagues. We enjoyed a good moan about the bad things of publishing today (too-tight schedules and, therefore, an inevitable drop in quality) and speculated about the future.

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking for the most remarkable project of the fair, but if there was something, it was kept under a table. I bumped into a few people I knew and had a quick catch-up on the spot. I also enjoyed a cuppa with a friend. I was happy to see a book project I'd written in a good spot on his company's stand - it's looking for a publisher and he thinks it will have one by the end of the fair. My name was on the spine and everything! All paws crossed.

The FEAST meeting was small and fun this evening. We're planning the next FEAST on 5 May, which has a spring theme. There was talk of welly-wanging, tug-of-war and cream teas.