Still smiling 🙂
Another Pemberthy spotting has come through – once more in Melbourne. That’s the lime green dot overlapping the purplish one on the south east of this map. Thanks Sherryl for reporting the sighting.
So now Pemberthy has been spotted in Corrigin (my hometown, in WA), Melbourne (twice), Sydney, Logan (Qld) and Brisbane. Have YOU seen Pemberthy anywhere – in your home, bookshop or library? I so, drop me a line and I’ll add another spot. And if you’ve just tuned in and are wondering what on earth all this is about, see my post below, Desperately Seeking Pemberthy.
Hmm. I wrote the post below this morning after I took the kids to school. I hadn’t pressed ‘publish’ (which is how you make the post appear on the site) when the phone rang. Could I come in to work – a relief teacher (that’s me) was needed in an emergency. I’m trying not to do relief at present because I’m not really well enough, but it was an emergency so I said yes, pressed publish and headed off to work.
Four hours later I’m home and back at my desk, having had quite a fun morning (I had to plan lessons on my feet so I read some great picture books to the class, then did an extended music and drama session). The first thing I saw when I sat down here was my blog post which was still open. The second thing I saw were the glaring spelling errors in the first paragraph of my post. Yes, because I was in a hurry I had not proofread or even spellchecked.
Fortunately for me, blogger allows you to edit posts even after they’re published, so I’ve now fixed them, but if anyone read my blog in the last four hours they probably shook their heads at my sloppy work. These were not little errors – they were big fat glaring ones. In future, if I’m in a hurry, I’ll save the posting for later when I have time to do it properly.
But there’s a lesson there for all writers. Proofreading is such a vital part of the writing process. I try not to proofread AS I write, especially for the first draft – that is, I get it all down before I go looking for errors. But then I proofread each draft, with the final draft getting several goings over. Where possible, I also get at least one other person to proofread for me, to see what I’ve missed.
Do you proofread your work meticulously? If not, you should not be sending it out for publishers to read. The care you take with proofreading (and manuscript [presentation, but that’s another story) can make or break your story – a manuscript riddled with errors says to the publisher that you don’t consider it worth doing a good job on, or that you don’t know your craft.
Do yourself a favour and proofread proofread proofread! It doesn’t matter whether it’s a blog post, a letter or a manuscript – get into the habit of proofreading everything you write.
By the way – even though I had to work unexpectedly, I’m still smiling.
I’ve been pretty grumpy lately. My shoulder has been causing me all sorts of problems and I’ve been really run down. All the doctor can find is low iron level, though I’m booked for an ultrasound of the shoulder next week.
So, I’ve been grumpy because of that and have allowed it to make me grumpy about other things – my messy house, the cold weather (and it IS cold!), my writing career.
But I’ve given myself a kick in the pants (not an easy feat) and got back to work the last few days, and the more I carry on as normal, the less grumpy I feel and the less grumpy I feel the more I achieve and the more I can carry on as normal.
Anyway, I’m focusing on the good stuff and this morning I’m smiling because:
a) I hung washing on the line for the first time in two weeks – and my shoulder didn’t scream.
b) It’s only three days until the school holidays and, on Thursday night all six of the Murphlets will be home.
c) There’s been another Pemberthy sighting, this time in Sydney, where, Dale tells me, this copy of Pemberthy is ‘treasured’. Here’s what the map looks like now, with the new spot the nice aqua-ish one on the East coast
Have a smiling day.
That was quick. I’d no sooner posted my map and request for people to notify me of their Pemberthy sightings (see post below) than I had reports of three sightings – one in Melbourne, one in Brisbane and one in Logan (Qld).
So here’s the new map, with those sightings recorded and new improved bigger dots for tired eyes 🙂 
Thanks so much to Claire and Anna for reporting their sightings.
Have YOU seen Pemberthy – in your house, in a bookshop, library or school? Let me know by posting a comment or emailing me, and I’ll mark it on the map.