To write for a living ?….

It is 5.30 in the morning and its done……

With the coffee machine working overtime and our Vizsla snoring peacefully on the floor next to my desk, I am sitting in front of 71 pages plus eight appendices of an advisory job, which I had taken on to try my hands on a completely new task (no scalpel involved this time).

For the last six weeks I have pretty much been glued to my desk, studying veterinary legislation, pet owner demographics, have spoken to a large number of veterinary organisations and colleagues, have fought with spreadsheets and with power point presentations with running (not fast enough) and walking the dog (not often enough) on most days the only interruption.

When I started this task, I had several moments when I had severe doubts that I could do it, partially because it was a lot of work to do, partially because in the beginning I didn’t have the skill set to do it. What helped me through it in the end was to compare the whole task to the climbing of a mountain: prepare yourself as good as you can, have a decent plan how it could work, break the journey up into many small sections, have the company of good friends and helpful strangers, hope for some good luck and for even better weather and then start walking…..

At the moment I have no idea if the final result will be well received, but at least I have managed to finish it a week ahead of schedule (but still five days behind my personal dead line……) and now it is time for a reward:

A book !

And in this case not just any kind of book….

Christina Loggia, together with her husband Angelo one of my favorite feline clients in Virginia Water, had made good use of the last 18 months of restrictions by writing her first novel. Without knowing it, she chose one of my favorite genres: a second world war spy thriller which – even better – is set in Italy.

I had ordered my copy already weeks ago, but I didn’t touch it because I knew that it would be too much of a distraction once I had started to read it and it made an excellent “carrot” to aim for by finishing this job.

Even better – after a few hours of sleep we got into the car and a short while later I was sitting in Christina’s and Angelo’s living room in a Berkshire village to get my own copy signed by the author !

The novel is starting in the heat of the desert of North Africa – an excellent choice for a novel, but so, so different from my next adventure……