It’s been a long week and I suddenly have a lot to do. I’ve made some pretty big decisions since my last post. But… backing up for just a second.

Before I headed up to Hudson last week I hopped down to SoHo (I didn’t have an appropriately rural weekend bag. Yes, I have a sickness.) On my way home I walked up Prince St, coveting all the gorgeous, outlandishly expensive shoes that I. Will. Not. Buy.

I popped into this small bookshop called McNally Jacksons (it’s amazing) and that’s when I saw it. This crazy machine.

It makes books on the spot, from scratch. It prints them right there in the shop for you. It’s called an Espresso Book Machine. It means that anyone can print and publish a book. I just stood there watching this thing work. Hypnotised by it. A shop assistant actually had to nudge me to get my attention because I was so absorbed by an idea I was conjuring up. The idea, you ask? One sec…

On Friday I spent my day in the offices of Wallace, Witlow and Partners. Offices makes it sound a lot grander than it is. There is actually only one and a half offices, which is kind of funny because there is only really one and a half partners in the firm. Orvin is one, there is some lady called Regina who comes in to deal with the phones, and as far as I can tell Mr Witlow has been deceased for quite some time.

We spent the day hunting down the whereabouts of the current license holders for the Ackerly Green books. Who bought the rights that bought the rights that bought the rights to my grandfather’s out-of-print books.

I asked Mr Wallace to track down the existing copyright owners to see if there would be any complications if I wanted to buy the rights back with the money my father left me.

I’m not sure at what point I decided I was going to re-open Ackerly Green Publishing, but I did and I am. I didn’t want to tell you all this last week just in case it wasn’t going to be possible. But the lovely Mr Wallace has assured me that it is and I can.

I’m going to find the complete Ackerly Green library, buy back the copyrights, and one way or another, bring them back to life.

After that, I don’t know. I really don’t.

But for now, Deirdre Green has a plan.

DGx