A brief delay

People not involved in The Industry, as we like to call it, are often surprised by how long it takes a book to be published. The shortest interval I've ever experienced between delivery and publication has been eight months; a year is standard. When they ask why, there is a standard spiel about the process, but mostly it boils down to the insolence of office and the law's delay.

But anyway: delay, it appears, has been built into publishing since the Very Early Days. Cambridge University Press obtained its royal charter 'to print all manner of books' from Henry VIII in 1534.

The Press published its first book in, wait for it, 1584.

That's fifty years.

What were they doing?

Whoo, that was unexpected...

I'm supposed to be reading at the Blue Room on Sunday night, and y'know what? Nothing I have ever, ever written is good enough to be read at the Blue Room on Sunday night.

Which apparently meant that I had to write something new. So I've done that. I set the novel aside this afternoon, and wrote a story, of sorts.

And y'know what? That's not good enough either. Tho' it does have the merit(s) of being short and complete. And it may get better, I suppose, between now and Sunday. It's been known.