Paperbacks of The Laird’s Bride arrived in the post this morning.

I was dreading it, because I’d made a real boo-boo in the setting up:  I’d accidentally chosen “right-to-left layout” — which is the way books in Arabic and Japanese and some other languages work. Even when I checked the file, and it was laid out backwards, starting at the end, and going through to the title page, I thought that was some peculiar part of the printing process, so I didn’t change it. 

In my defense, when I first started making the little adult literacy books I make for my former employer (over 100 titles so far), the layout (before printing) looked weird — page 1 was opposite page 16, page 2 opposite page 15 and so on. But in the printing they came out perfectly. So I just thought this backward text was the same kind of thing.

Later a lovely bookseller alerted me to the problem, pointing out that the paperback cover displayed on some sites was in fact the back cover of the paperback. See pic below. (Thank you Rosemary!)

So I hightailed it to the Print-on-Demand website I used to get it fixed. Which is when I discovered that the text was also backwards. More than a week later, and several Helpdesk tickets — and MUCH angst and fretting on my behalf — I got the correct version uploaded this morning — or so I thought.

In the meantime, a week ago, I’d ordered 6 copies of the paperback. So I was expecting that I’d have to throw all 6 copies into the recycle bin because, of course, they’d be printed out backwards. So today, when my parcel arrived, I opened it with great trepidation. 

And to my great delight and HUGE relief,  I found that the paperbacks had been printed perfectly, and looked beautiful. So PHEW! I don’t know which clever person at the Print-on-Demand company spotted my mistake and fixed it, but I’m hugely grateful. And now I’m smiling at my little paperbacks and stroking them, and getting ready to order some more. 

The paperbacks can be ordered through most bookstores. I don’t sell them from my website, but I will be bringing some to sell at the ARRA book signing at the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Sydney in August.

My new bookshelves are done!  

I wanted them dead plain with extra shelves. And white because a) there’s already a lot of wood in the room and b) it would be hard to match. Plus c) it was cheaper. <g>

I’m so happy with them — the shelves are  adjustable and very easy to change. They’re studier than my old shelves, too. 

The guy got here at 7am and was all done by 9.30am. (And I finished writing a scene.) He did  a nice clean job. And he was very nice — he even gave Milly a treat because she’d been so quiet and good, sitting by the table on her leash, watching.

I won’t be arranging the books any time soon — I have to finish writing my current book first. And then there will  have to be a massive culling, because I had two walls of books in my old house and now I have just one. I also had a number of big stand-alone  bookshelves, but I’m only keeping three. I’m giving the rest (the two biggest plus one other) to charity. They’re sitting on the veranda ready for someone to take them away.

Once I have my study set up, I’ll share a photo, but it won’t be for ages.

I’m having a visitor coming to stay for a few nights — some of my writer friends are flying in for a meeting, and one good friend is coming in a few days early to stay in my new house before moving in to the meeting hotel.

So the guest room needed. . . um . . . work. Because a few weeks ago it still looked much like this.

All those boxes contain books, and I’m getting bookshelves built in, but it’s a sixteen week wait for the guy to come and do it — which will be in early December. And once they’re up, then the dreaded book-culling will begin. 

I’m keeping a few of the stand-alone bookshelves as well, but am planning to paint them white (they’re currently a kind of soft pink, which I’m soooo bored with now.)  But I’m trying to get my book finished, so basically I wasn’t planning on doing anything — no book-culling, no bookcase painting, no guest-room organizing — until after the new shelves were built  and the book  finished, of course.

So, the prospect of a visitor coming to stay really got me moving!  I’m so excited. I can’t tell you how long it is since I’ve had anyone to stay. Covid really put the kybosh on that, and then moving house . . .

First I had to move all the boxes of books into the other spare room—it’s now jam-packed, and won’t be cleared until I get the bookshelves built—and move some furniture around as well.

Next there was the issue of a bed. Useful things, beds. Visitors seem to like them. I’d thrown out the wonky old bed base before I moved, but I’d kept the mattress, which was almost new. So I had to buy a new base, which wasn’t a problem, and then put it together, which was. I hate those “put furniture together” things with their impossible instructions, don’t you? Luckily I had a friend come around to help me. I say “help me” but really he did all the work (and the swearing) while I balanced things and handed screws out and held things together.

And then, it being a nice new bed, I had to get a new quilt cover, didn’t I?  Because the bedding for the old guest room doesn’t fit with the colors in the new house — that’s my excuse anyway.

So now it’s all ready for my visitor — except for the flowers, which I’ll pick tomorrow. The room is still rather bare-looking — no paintings or anything, and the bookshelf is still a dreary pink, which doesn’t go at all with the rest of the room. And the books aren’t organized in any way — I just threw a few into the bookcase so it didn’t look too horridly bare. And so that there are a few things for visitors to browse through if they want something to read.

I also bought a bedside table with a drawer, but it only arrived yesterday, and since it’s another item that has to be put together,  it can wait. It might be an evening’s entertainment for my visitor and me, who knows? In the meantime, the bamboo thing works fine.

But it’s no longer a cluttered box-room, (even though you can still see the imprint of some of the boxes on the carpet).  The bed is ready and it’s very comfortable. And my friend is very good at decor and stuff like that, so I foresee some good and fruitful discussions.