Comic Cuts — 21 November 2025

I've had a somewhat chaotic week processing orders—thankfully there are lots of names I remember from previous orders, which makes me think the first three books must have been OK; there's nothing quite like a returning customer to gladden the heart!

I'm also trying to get on with the next one, as I have a deadline to hit. I finished writing notes on some of the latter-day stories and I'm now re-reading the whole thing from the beginning so that I can try to match the tone of the early parts, the level of detail, make sure I'm not repeating myself, filling in a couple of places where I'd left myself notes, etc., etc. I need to do this because some of the book was written five years ago, when I was looking at the 45th anniversary. Then my money ran out. 

In a way that has worked to the book's advantage, as I'm now aiming for the 50th anniversary, which means—working backwards—I need to be getting proofs in January, designing the book in December and finishing the writing in November. So things are a little tight, especially as I like to take a few days off around Christmas.

I don't want to sound smug, but I'm going to... I have all my Christmas presents and cards sorted out already, as I was ordering things in such a way that I benefited from free postage each time. It also helps that everyone gets books from me (not written by me, I hasten to add), so I find it quite easy to shop for people. I find that "What book do you want" helps focus people who might need to think forever if the question is "What do you want". 

I, too, like to receive books. I'll sometimes pick a reference book that I might not otherwise buy, but my wants list this year has been all fiction. I won't say what. I'll save that for my new TikTok channel and my latest #bookhaul video. See, I can talk like the young people.

One of the reasons I go for books is that if I need something, it often can't wait, so I go out and buy it. So my new toy this week is a wireless microphone. During the recording of my last couple of videos, I noticed that my old microphone was recording very poorly on one of the stereo channels, and doing the microphone equivalent of "turning it off and on again"—i.e. taking the wire out of the microphone and then putting it back in—didn't improve matters. It's an old microphone that I bought twenty years ago second hand, so I have no idea how old it actually is.

The new microphone is small, you clip it onto your clothing, it connects up to a receiver and that plugs into my laptop; I then record using my usual audio programme, GoldWave. I've only tried it once, but it seemed to work OK. 

I had hoped to be able to use it out of the office, but have run into a technical problem... my phone is too old. And not too smart, I'll add. It doesn't have the right kind of socket for me to plug in the receiver. Curses! My plans are foiled again by my natural thriftiness and sticking to outdated technology until it stops working.

Too late to ask for a new phone for Christmas. Maybe next year.