On reprint collections or Never accept a raisin danish from an Evil Monkey
*Angela is snoozing on an eighteenth century fainting couch, using a pile of books as a pillow, and blanketed by sheets of a A4 paper (printed on one side, double space, 12 pt font). A blue pen dangles from her limp fingers and a large blue splot of ink mars her wrinkled brow.*Evil Monkey creeps closer, leans down and yells: Hey!Angela: Argh!!! *flails about, falls off the eighteenth century fainting couch, swears* (a lot)Evil Monkey: Did I wake you?Angela: I’ve known you for what? A week and a half?Evil Monkey: About that, yeah.Angela: And I already hate you.Evil Monkey: Hey! Not fair. I brought you a coffee and a danish with raisins.Angela: Yeah, no. I’m not accepting anything from you ostensibly containing ‘raisins’. Not falling for that again.Evil Monkey: Mmmm. Smarter than you look. Coffee?Angela: No way.Evil Monkey: Right. So, whatchya been doing?Angela: Proofing a manuscript.Evil Monkey: One of those short story collections?Angela: Yep. The Girl with No Hands & Other Tales.Evil Monkey: How’s that going?Angela: Well, it’s done and gone to the publisher and he’s sent it to the printer.Evil Monkey: So, an easy task?Angela: Hell, no. It’s mainly reprints. You go back and re-read stories you wrote four year ago and you see how your style has changed and you scream quietly to yourself.Evil Monkey: You want to re-write bits?Angela: Oh, yeah. It’s like being told to not look back. You know you’ll be turned into a pillar of salt if you do ... but you just can’t help it.Evil Monkey: Did you change much?Angela: Nah. It was difficult. You can see your mistakes – or not necessarily mistakes, but stuff you’d do differently now. But most stuff I left – unless it was just so awful I wanted to chew my own arm off. Repetitions, that's the worst thing for me. I try so hard to get rid of them nowadays. Back then, not so much - I just didn't see it.Evil Monkey: Why’s that?Angela: Because it’s a record of my early stuff. You don’t get to re-write your history. There’s a name for people like that. I think, for the most part, you write it, you put it out there and your stand by it.Evil Monkey: Interesting. Raisin danish?Angela: Hey!