Title: Out with the old...

So, the time has finally come for me to bow out of the ACCU Production Editor role. I'd intended to carry on doing it for a few more years but an unexpected promotion has brought a vastly increased workload in my day job, and this combined with greater child-care responsibilities as my sons' father is working away from Nottingham has meant I couldn't devote the time necessary to producing the journals to the high standard I've tried to achieve.

I'm sitting here scratching my head, trying to remember how long I've been doing the job. It feels like forever... but at the same time it seems like only yesterday I was down in Oxford learning the tricks of the trade from Francis Glassborow. I owe a huge thank you to Francis for all his help in the early days, his advice and support was invaluable, and without him at least one pair of journals wouldn't have arrived at the printers on time (it's a long story involving the premature demise of a hard disk and almost but not totally matching font sets).

I have to say I've thoroughly enjoyed learning the skills required to produce a professional quality magazine. I'd edited smaller-scale magazines in the past, for example I produced the Notts County Bridge Bulletin for a couple of years, using Microsoft Word for the layout and photocopying and stapling the copy myself. However I'd never used a desktop publishing package, and never had to manage a large-scale production process like this before, so it was a bit of a shock to the system. I've been extremely impressed by the dedication of the committee and the editorial team, all of whom are volunteers, yet all of whom have worked above and beyond the call of duty to provide you with invariably high-quality journals every two months without fail. I'd especially like to thank the editors past and present (James Dennett, John Merrells, Alan Griffiths, Paul Johnson), various committee members (David Hodge, Pete Goodliffe, Chris Lowe, Thaddaeus Frogley, Ewan Milne), Alan Lenton for the fabulous cover images, all the contributing authors and columnists, and others too numerous to list. Thanks also to Ian and all the team at Parchment, and Simon and John and all at Able Types. You've all been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Enough now, this is starting to sound a bit like an Oscar acceptance speech. The tears are flowing freely down my long silk gown even as I type... It only remains to say that you haven't heard the last of me - now I've got all this spare time (!) I'm hoping to contribute a few articles, and I'm planning to get involved in the editorial team as a reader/reviewer. I'll certainly keep reading the journals, although perhaps not in quite as much detail!

All the best of luck to your new Production Editor - Alison Peck - although I'm sure with the extensive experience and skills she has, and such a professional and committed editorial team, she won't need any luck.

I've been working as a technical author for over 9 years now, but not always with that job title. I left permanent employment at the end of October last year to have a go at freelancing - basically, if it involves words or training, I'm interested. I've mainly (but not exclusively) documented software in the past, covering the full range of users from novice to developer and I've also been involved in training all sorts of stuff, software-related and anything else I've been asked to do. Technical authoring is a second career for me - in a previous life, I was a nurse.

I live in Nottingham and I've been here for over 20 years -my family has nearly all left home now, with the youngest off to university in the autumn. I just need to find some way to stop them coming back!.

Hobbies? I haven't got time at the moment - the dissertation for MA is due in July so that and trying to establish some freelance stuff means I'm kept fairly busy. I've started to keep a few tropical fish, but nothing too intense.