With this issue rather spot- lighting the fact Reconnect has reached 50 issues, Scott instead has his attention on something else entirely.
DEADLINES! Deadlines! Anyone who has never worked in the publishing industry has no real idea what the approach of a final print deadline does to an editor. I used to be a chef, in a hotel in Salcombe, and so I realise that people do understand the necessity to produce your work to a high standard and ensure it’s ready when others demand it. In a hot kitchen you also have to work together to ensure all the food gets there at the same time. In publishing however it’s slightly different. To stick to the chefing analogy for a while – bear with me – there are dozens and dozens of chefs all working on their own daily output, and alongside that you ask them to make a dish for you to be ready at a set time in the future. No longer is the final dish (the magazine in this case – yes persisting in drawing parallels) only my responsibility. All the separate ingredients on the menu I’m creating have to be given to me in plenty of time to prepare and cook the dish. Each issue I’ve done, three in all have had me enter the final week with most of the ingredients (the articles, artwork, and adverts) ready and much of the menu prepared. But, then it’s a frantic rush to get the final morsels in place. It hasn’t always gone smoothly, at the eleventh hour I’ve realised that someone won’t get their advert in to me until the following issue and so I frantically find a new substitute ingredient. You, dear reader, are unaware of the hectic race to put the magazine on the pages in the final week before it leaves Reconnect Towers and is despatched to Kingfisher for them to print. I hope the final magazine shows nothing of the panic, I, together with the writers, photographers, and proofreaders go through to ensure our final menu is a perfectly presented feast of all things Reconnect. I also hope that those who contribute their time to getting their adverts designed, and their features worded are unaware of my elevated heart rate and wide eyed panic as I ask them again for their carefully crafted prose and images. “But, it was due two weeks ago!” I think as yet another email is fired off to someone’s email inbox to meet with the many others that I’ve sent to reside there, also unanswered. I realise their proprietor is incredibly busy in their own business dealings, and I try not to sound too hysterical as I lift the phone to call them. I always used to leave homework and essays to the last minute when I had to complete them. So, I do realise how difficult it is to get something wrapped up early. By and large so far in the creation of each issue of Reconnect I’ve been lucky, there’s been no major issue in getting the final draught to print. I find it a bit confusing then, that I get so worried about it, in these the final weeks before the printer needs the completed pages. As I sit here penning this in the sweltering heat, I’ve had three broken nights of sleep in a row. I’ve been kept awake worrying if spaces allocated to promised advertisers will be filled. I’m unnervered about whether features will be sent in time, and I fear that if I don’t get it all on the pages in time then there will be no time for it to be proofed. I have to own up, despite being in publishing for 20+ years my speeling is still dreddfull, and I rely on someone who has a better grasp of the conjugation of letters to make this the readable issue you now hold in your hands. In these final weeks before the magazine is committed to print I get incredibly anxious. I also remember that I always have done. In my twenties I used to end up feeling physically sick in the final early hours of putting together Christmas editions of magazines for teen readers. I’m grateful my wife is so used to this self generated stress. She tries her best to soothe me, and to point out that I needn’t worry everything will turn up eventually. She listens patiently as I empty my head of worries about that half page, this eighth of a page, and that article on wellbeing. I’m glad she’s used to it, for some reason after decades, I still never am. This article is dedicated to her, and to all those fed up of my emails and phone calls badgering them, thanks for putting up with me. Bon appetit! NB: I have to apologise and correct something from last issue. In the last issue I referred to the Steiner Academy Exeter as Exeter Steiner School. They are not the same thing. Exeter Steiner School was a small independent Steiner school than ran from the late 90s until it closed for financial reasons in 2012. Steiner Academy Exeter, is a publicly funded free school. There was no direct continuation between the two schools. southwesterlies… Scott