This week at Valley Press, #57: 'Moving story'

Dear readers,

Just when you thought you’d seen the last of me – I’m back! Jamie has once again trusted me (Rebecca, an intern and aspiring publisher) to deliver the happenings of this week at Valley Press; things are very busy for him at the minute and there is always another important thing to get done. Before I bring you up-to-date, I just want to say thank you for the lovely responses I received from some of you last week, after my last newsletter – it really made my day. If you want to read my latest blog post about my second week as an intern at VP, feel free to check it out here.

Today rounds up my three-week internship (I am over in Leeds for the Northern Short Story Festival tomorrow) – and I am feeling all sorts of emotions about that. I am sad to be leaving such a lovely team behind, who have made me feel so welcome and part of the VP family; I am also excited, however, to continue my journey on the road to making a career out of publishing – and this internship has really set the bar high. I cannot ever thank Jamie, Laura, Jo and Tess enough, but I can try. THANK YOU, times a million!

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This week has been very exciting. We moved to our new office over the weekend – which was an eventful day, to say the least. Relying on the man-power of six people, we thought ‘how hard can this be?’ but oh, it was difficult. But, after local ceramicist Karen Thompson kindly offered us her services – and her car – we were quickly rewarding ourselves with a huge buffet style lunch, admiring the new office space (see below for the lunch, above for a blurry image of the office). We felt at home in no time, and one of the other reasons I am sad to leave is that I’ll be leaving this office behind!

A quick reminder that tomorrow (03.06.17) is the Northern Short Story Festival in Leeds. It is anticipated to be a great day; I know both Jamie and I are looking forward to it. If you still haven’t made your minds up about whether or not to come – we will have a bookstall set up, which will be a great opportunity for you to check out some of our books ‘in the flesh’, so to speak. Jamie is also appearing on a panel, What do editors look for in a short story? So, for those of you hopeful short story writers out there – here’s your chance to get all the insider info.

Helen Burke’s Today the Birds Will Sing is approaching its final stage, after 20 months of hard work. It is expected that printing will take up to three weeks, so Jamie is now advertising its delivery to be early July. I have worked a little on the book myself and I promise you, it really is worth the wait – it is so beautiful and has been crafted into something spectacular, that both Helen and VP can be proud of.

I'll leave you with three more videos to enjoy of Norah Hanson’s reading, held in Scarborough two weeks ago. You can check them out here: 'Targeted', 'Multi-tasking' and 'Too Soon It Is Over'.

Now, this really is goodbye. Thank you, again, for being patient with me whilst I temporarily took over Jamie’s job and thank you to Jamie for allowing me to take over – it has been a pleasure. Keep on reading, keep on supporting Valley Press, and have a lovely weekend.

All the best,
Rebecca Moynihan, Valley Press intern

P.S. Ken Pickles: I have since found out, after your email, that my surname is particularly popular in the counties of Cork and Kerry!