Living like it's 1978

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 19/11/13

It’s been a week of full-on editing for me. I’m working on getting the manuscript as polished as a shiny thing before sending it off to Rebel. Funny, but the longer I tinker with it, the less sure I am. Just getting too close to it I think. Always a pain though when you notice a little writing tic towards the very back of the book and you think “Is this new, or have I been doing this the whole way through?” It’s then back to the beginning to go through the whole damn thing again. But I’m getting closer with each pass.

It’s odd writing in another era. I disappear into the seventies for hours at a time and am always surprised when I surface back in the present day. It does, however, give me a real appreciation for my mobile phone and email. Back then if you lost your address book, you were screwed.

Those little books were constantly guarded and updated as people moved on. With email you have one address and it follows you around the world. In the seventies if people moved around their details were constantly being rubbed out and re-pencilled it. It was a brave person who wrote addresses in biro.

It was a simpler time back then too and seemed to have had a joy about it that’s sadly lacking today. Maybe I’ll start living like it’s 1978.