Blimey, whatever happened to Tuesday?

Hooray, I've managed to master the software. I'm also up to my neck in sheep after-birth and lambs, not to mention a border collie named Twink whose mission in life seems to be to get under my feet when I'm trying to deliver lambs. This is now the start of the second week (of six) when we lamb about 95 ewes. It's not a big flock, but it's as time-consuming to lamb 95 as 950. I suppose I should be telling the world of Unbound that I'm writing my book, The Lifers' Club, but in actual fact I completed it about eight months ago. Then I emailed Justin Pollard a copy of the manuscript and he seemed to like it. So now it's with Unbound and somehow we've got to reach our target of 500 subscribers. And I've just had a BRILIANT idea: why don't I get my flock of sheep to subscribe? And then their lambs. That's 95 ewes, three rams and, say, 200 lambs. We'll easily do it. Trouble is, I don't think many of them have credit cards, although some have PayPal accounts. Sometimes I wonder whether I was mad to go down the crowd-funding route, but the trouble is I love it: it's the direct contact you get with your readers that makes it so worthwhile. I plan to be at Hay-on-Wye in May and it'll be great to meet some of you then. I'd love to introduce you to Alan Cadbury, but I gather he'll be on a dig in County Durham: something by the sea and very ancient (Mesolithic, I think). But he sends his love. Sad, isn't it, when authors can't separate themselves from their creations. Rather like ewes and rams and lambs. Time I went back to the barn for (yet another) hourly patrol. For more about lambing visit my bog: http://pryorfrancis.wordpress.com. A final thought: while I'm waiting for lambs to appear, the sheep like to listen to Classic FM (very soothing). And I ponder the plot of my next Alan Cadbury adventure...