I never can tell ...

What they said was very reassuring. So now on the back cover we can put “A wonderful story which brings the ancient Olympics to vibrant life. You can almost smell Greece from its pages…” and “It seems that young people's issues have hardly changed in 2,400 years!” The complete quotes will go inside the book.

I’ve written quite a lot of stories and even some that have won awards, but I never can tell whether they are going to be of interest to anyone else. It’s good to know that at least three people like this one – my publisher and the two reviewers.

Cover notes

Today we worked on what the back cover will look like. We went through lots of my photos. This was one of them, but probably we won't use it. There's a copyright issue nowadays with the Olympic rings. And they were taken down from the Panathenaic Stadium soon after the time when my story begins there. 

Perhaps we’ll have one of those ‘Accident Here. Please telephone such and such if you have any information’ notices, with a photo of the pedestrian crossing where the accident happens in the story. Connie has some great ideas.

I handed over the maps I’ve drawn to go at the end. We had decided there should be a map of the journey from Athens to Olympia, as well as of each of the cities. It does make the stages of the journey clearer.

And I’m working on the list of characters and the other bits and pieces they call end-matter and pre-lims. That list, and checking some final facts, will be my ‘homework’ before our next meeting. 

I’m sitting working on it now, and the wind is howling round the house. The slates on the roof shift on their nails every now and again with a great rattle, like the scales on a fish lifting. What must it be like out there for the birds in our garden? It reminds me that life is so safe now, compared to what it must have been like for most people in most of the past. My Themistokles lived at a dangerous time... 

I snuggle down into my slanket and thank my lucky stars.