It’s almost here. Publication day for 40 Ways of Looking at Manhattan is just three days away. Boxes of books are waiting for me to go collect them from the shippers. Ditto a couple of new prints of Timothy’s photos. I’ve updated most of the relevant web pages: Amazon book listings and author pages, Goodreads, this website. (Those links won’t be are now live here until because those precious books are actually in hand!)
Friends are twittering and chattering about the upcoming Zoom-based publication party. I’m fussing with every light and bookshelf in my office, setting the scene for those Zoom quarantinis and virtual hugs. Cats are pacing the hallway, wondering when I’ll stop rearranging my office shelves (see Zoom stage-setting) and go feed them.
Today felt like the day before I — in my role as a print production manager at dear old Thomson Holidays — gave the signal for Mondadori to start rolling the great gravure presses on 250,000 copies of Summer Sun… By which I mean ‘nerve-wracking.’
Calm before storm
To work off that high-dive-board anxiety, I decided to keep to my current routine of post-work walkies. (Yes, I finally conceded that walkies are a well-researched tool to maintain a semblance of healthy body/healthy mind during continuing coronavirus lockdown.) I pounded along, iPod pulsing, ticking off tasks-before-launch on my fingers, keeping my heart rate up.
But what was foremost in my mind’s eye was not my laundry-list of chores. I saw, vividly as the trees and robins and playing fields around me, Timothy taking those shots. Prowling up and down waterside docks and cobblestone streets, quiet cloisters and frenetic avenues. Stopping suddenly, pivoting around for the unexpected angle, me practically tripping off the curb to avoid bumping his camera-arm. Months later, Tim peering through smudged glasses at his computer screen, tablet-pen in hand, experimenting with one filter or another, pushing some digital envelope till he was satisfied with the result.
Of course, I hope everyone likes — loves, even — this book. But really, I pray that, somewhere, Tim’s giving the project a wink and a smile, allowing me to brag on his behalf once again.