Out of the Debauched Sloth

Chaz Brenchley's trying-to-be-fortnightly newsletter

“Tucker Carlson was fired!” - every news source on the internet

That aside, the chief news this past fortnight is that I irredeemably broke a hinge on my beloved Mykita Mylon glasses. I have worn glasses pretty much my whole life, and I have never loved a pair the way I love these. They’re large, dramatic, 3-D printed and British Racing Green, which has been my favourite colour life-long. The place I bought them no longer handles Mykita products; neither does anywhere else remotely close. I had to courier them to LA for repair - and I just heard this morning, they are fixed and on their way home, yay!

Meanwhile, I am become Professor Branestawm, for those in the know: I have four old pairs of glasses on this desk, and I shuffle through them in random order, for none of them has the right focal length for this monitor. I almost thought I’d skip this newsletter, I am so weary of reading blurry text; but no, we soldier on. Chiefly because an actual writerly event has just occurred: I have the page proofs of my short story “Of Grace and Youth and Memory and Time” back from the publisher, to give it one last check-over before the book goes to press.

I think I’ve worked through this text four times now: my own first readthrough, when traditionally I just polish phrases here and there, for I am not one of those dismantle-the-first-draft-and-rebuild-it-entirely types of writer; the first editorial pass, which was (also traditionally, where my work is concerned) at its heart a simple “please cut where you can”, so I did; a copy-edit, when all my lovely British spellings are revised according to Mr Webster’s notions; and now this final proof, by which time nothing should actually need changing. (I’ve never worked with an anthology publisher quite this scrupulous about authorial feedback; it’s one of the reasons I love working with ZNB.)

Away from this desk, I have chilli seedlings under grow lights and more in pots outside, I have tomatoes in the ground, flower-seeds sown all over, and an aching back. Also my throat is a little sore and I am snuffly and somewhat miserable. Testing negative thus far, and honestly it’s probably just allergies, but taking precautions none the less.

I think that’s all the news I have for you this time. Will send addenda if mistaken.

- Chaz