SERIES TWO: WE ARE BACK BABY!

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We’re back with a brand new episode! In the first episode of series two, we’re talking all the changes that have gone on behind the scenes, including book release information and so much more. Watch out for next Tuesday where the new covers are revealed…

Podcast Transcript

Hello and welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I’m your host, Andrew Waterhouse. And in today’s episode, we’re talking Season 2, baby! So come on into our tent, and I’ll spill the beans!

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. It has been far, far too long since I last did a podcast episode. But I am so thrilled to be back because I really do love talking about summer camp. I know there are plenty of you out there that just love to listen to the podcasts as well. And you know what… 2020 was a horrid year. I think that was when I last recorded a podcast actually. Because it started to not make sense to record podcasts about summer camp when the whole world was in lockdown. COVID was running rampant. And my personal life was just starting to get too in the way of recording podcasts, keeping up quality material, and working on the book. But here I am today with some fantastic news to bring you.

So here we are with what I call this season two of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, episode 64. It’s been a while. And I very much welcome you into my tent. I hope you’re very excited about what’s to come because I have some cracking announcements to make today. So what’s been happening while I’ve been away from the podcasts?

Updates since 2020

New logo!

Well, let me tell you, there has been quite a lot. In case you haven’t seen it already. There’s been some new artwork designed for There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, and there’s a fresh new logo that I really admire, I think it works really well. It works well for the podcast, as well as the book. So there’s been a lot of work behind the scenes to just tighten everything up, make everything as good as it can be because you only got one shot of releasing a book. This is where I have a couple of announcements to make. It’s a design that I really much like, but I’m open to your feedback, the previous logo of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp was good, I really did enjoy it. But the problem it had was it was quite hard to read. Especially for the podcast logo, it sort of had the dark sky in the background with a yellow tent. I don’t know if you remember that. And it didn’t really say summer camp to me. But it was something I just threw together and didn’t really think too much about. So it was always in the back of my mind that it doesn’t really line up with what summer camp is for me. When I’m thinking summer camp, I’m actually thinking of the sun, I’m thinking of fun times I’m thinking of kids, I’m thinking of staff and thinking of all these different things, I’m not thinking of a yellow tent in the dark. With that, the There’s No Place Like Summer Camp logo is revamped. That was one of the first things or wasn’t actually the most recent things that has been fixed, to be honest, is the logo. And I think it comes across now in a much fresher, cleaner style, there may still be smaller tweaks to be made to it. So it can read as well as it possibly can be. Because of that first logo. Actually, I have the old one here beside me.

It can be pretty hard to read. But this new one really fresh, clean design, which I think will work well with the book too. So new artwork is here and more is to come

An update on the book

On top of this, there has been the vast majority of 2021 and 2020, the back half of 2020, where I was just working on the book. And I think I last left you with if I remember rightly, I think I left you with me being in a bit of a limbo, where I tried to find a good editor for the book. I kept getting a great editor and then they would fall out because of their personal life and that sort of thing. I’m thrilled to say that I’ve completed the editing phase of my book, it’s all done.

There’s No Place Like Summer Camp book is all written!

It’s all written. I’m happy with it. I’ve run the book past everyone possible that really makes sense to run it past and to make sure that they’re happy with all the things that are in there. And just to get some feedback really on my writing style if it makes sense if it reads well, and all that sort of thing. So I’ve run it through my edits with my editor. And she really helps me to change the tenses of the book, she made it more readable to people that haven’t been to my summer camp before, and cover up plot holes. I’m not the best of writers… And I’m not trying to be a perfect writer, I’m trying to be someone that’s actually got a book published at the end of the day.

So my editor really helps me to think about the grand picture, and think about the audience that I’m writing for. And giving a bit more background to what the diary I wrote at the time when I was at summer camp, it can often gloss over things. So I’m thrilled where it got to. And it was fantastic to find someone that connected with the book. Of all places that I got this editor from, it was Australia.

I didn’t think we would work as well as we have. But it reads so much better than the first iteration of the book. I am thrilled with where it’s got to.

So she gave me a ton of feedback, and often I went back to the drawing board. I think in total, I’ve written seven versions of this book and it’s consistently gotten better.

With this seventh one, she gave me all that feedback and I have addressed all of the problems that she raised, I loved her writing style. She has left me with a polished book. So I am thrilled to where the book now is.

Of course run it through my group that I feel is most appropriate to see the book before it is published. The feedback there, again, has been worked upon, it has been incorporated and any worries have been addressed as well. It’s up to a point where it was ready for the second phase of its editing process. So not only have I hired an editor, but I also hired a proofreader as well. That really just went once again, over all of the changes that I made, making sure it read well, making sure punctuation and spelling was all good. And yeah, I’m thrilled to say that it’s all written, I’m really happy with it, the people I’ve been sharing the book with have been really happy with it, too. So there’s been tons of work in the background. And I’m really excited to see where the book has really come into its own because I think that’s where in 2020 it was hard to juggle the podcast and the book. So one of my resolutions for 2021 was to release the book.

Releasing the book has often been a question that crops up in my Twitter and Instagram messages. And it’s really great to see that enthusiasm for trying to get your hands on the copy when it does get released. And it has been my goal for 2021. However, I don’t think it particularly makes sense to release the book right at this moment, because there’s still some fine-tuning to do.

So keep your eyes peeled, it’s looking like Q1 2022 that this book will be released. So I’m thrilled to put that date out there. And we’ll see what happens.

Note, There’s No Place Like Summer Camp is available now since this episode was launched. You can read the book over at Amazon here.

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Covers and design decisions for the book

Okay, so on top of the editing changes that have been made to the book and how it reads so much better than it did ever before. I’m actually getting really positive feedback from my beta readers, and it’s really good to see that I’ve actually been doing some design work too. So keep your eyes peeled on the socials. There might be an update in the next few days or so. Maybe in the next episode, we can go over the covers and the designs that have been made. So it has been a really productive few months.

The Journey we have been on

It’s staggering to think that I started this podcast way back in like 2016 and we’re on our 64th episode now. We’re finally at a point where the book is really ready to sort of go live. So keep your eyes peeled for that and keep an eye on the socials as well. So of course, you can follow me on Twitter @androow09. I have to say this every time because my Twitter handle was so bad. So badly spelt, but I’m not changing it. On Instagram, we can be followed by going to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. Pretty cool.

So I’ve been doing a lot of work with editors, a lot of work with designers, the books really up to a point where I’m really happy with it, the editor is happy with it. And those in my circle are happy with it too.

Updates through 2020 and 2021

So let’s talk about what I’ve missed since being away from the podcast because there have been some updates 2020 and 2021. Were two of those summers were really the whole world was in chaos. I have to say, I can’t blame 2021. 2021 hasn’t really been at fault for this, but 2020 certainly has. It all started of course with the COVID outbreak and the pandemic across the whole world. Never in my life did I think I’d actually lived through a pandemic and actually catch Coronavirus myself. If you haven’t heard that episode, go back a couple of episodes and you’ll hear what it was like to actually have COVID-19.

But of course, having that pandemic sweep, the entire globe meant summer camp was really cancelled for a lot of people that want it to go. Certainly it’s had its after-effects in 2021. However, since I’ve been away, there’s been some updates. It’s with great delight that I’ve seen some updates in the political sphere where the US and the UK have come together to make an agreement to allow fully vaccinated people to travel between the two countries. So of course, that not only means for travel and trade, but it also means for summer camps, you will be able to travel for 2022, which I think ties in well with the reasoning of why the book release date is Q1 2022. I’m really trying to hone in on a specific date.

I want to make sure everything’s perfect because you only really get one shot at this.

So I hope you understand I hope you’re really excited for it to come out. Of course, there’ll be an update on here and on the socials when it does finally go live. (it is live – see https://amzn.to/3Bf7vv2). But yes, there’s been an agreement between the US and the UK. So from November 2021, I think it’s actually in place at the time that this episode goes live. Travel between the two countries is open for those that are fully vaccinated. So if you want to go to Camp America, you want to go and volunteer at summer camp, make sure you’re fully vaccinated and you should have no issues so great news to see finally.

Personal Life updates

So what else has been going on in my personal life haven’t really touched upon that. For the last couple of months, I always the thing is with my memory I always don’t remember the full year. I instead remember the most recent things I’ve been doing so I’m just giving myself a bit of a reminder here on what I’ve done since I lost in the podcast episode but from the top of my head the most recent things are travel wise, I haven’t really gone abroad.

The last time I went abroad was to Prague when I caught the COVID-19 virus and that was fun.

Loch Ness and Isle of Skye

But most recently, I’ve been travelling mostly within the UK. Of course, we can’t really travel anywhere it’s not really worth the risk, especially as I caught COVID while I was abroad doesn’t really make sense to go back out. But most recently, I’ve travelled to the Loch Ness and that was really fun. That was back in October so it was quite recent.

It was really fun because it was quite a travel time up from the northwest like Manchester sort of area up to Loch Ness is you think that the UK is only about six hours in length. It’s really night. It was six hours from Manchester to Loch Ness, which is absolutely ridiculous. But we had a fantastic time we went to, of course, the loch itself where we did a boat tour. While we went to the Isle of Skye, which is a really quiet countryside, outcrop of the very northern tip of the UK.

Lads trip to Lake District – Cliff Climbing Scare

I’ve been on lads trips too. And this time, instead of going to Prague, we went to the Lake District. We did things like Cliff climbing, which really put me out of my comfort zone, completely shitting myself to be honest, and absolutely hated everything about that, literally scaling the side of a cliff, it’s probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. To be honest, I was sweating buckets throughout the whole time. There was this one part in particular, that was really scary, where we had to do a tight rope walk from one mountain to the other. It was just a tightrope, essentially, but you walk, you walk down, and I absolutely Catamarans didn’t look down once.

So that was fun.

Harry Potter World

Most recently, too, there’s been the trip to Harry Potter World, which was an overdue Christmas present from 2019. It’s been two years since that was purchased. We were able to finally use it. It’s just nice to see, you know, the world is coming back to its normal self. And it’s just nice to be able to do things again, and being able to travel abroad is one of the things that I’d like to do. But I’m in no rush to do if you know what I mean. But I’m sure there are plenty of you on this podcast that are just gagging to get yourselves to summer camp, because, you know, you’re only young once and you’re only gonna be able to do this once sort of thing if you’re lucky. So make sure you make the most of this when it does actually allow you to do so. So Camp America 2022 applications are open, if you go on to their website, you’ll be able to sign up, log in, enter your details, make sure you’re fully vaccinated, and you should have no problems getting over there. I’m sure they have like some sort of refundable policy as well if anything does crop up. So you don’t have to worry about that.

Professional life updates – new job as a web designer

Oh, I almost forgot, it’s been, you know, over a year since my last episode. And it’s crazy to think how much my life has actually changed on a professional level, too. So since I last spoke to you, I was talking about how terrible a job I had at this web design agency. And to give you some context, it was a husband and wife, company. And man, it was hands down the worst place I’ve ever worked. And there was bullying going on, towards me towards other members of staff.

It was just a really negative place to work. To think that in the span of just a year, I’ve left that place. I’m now an operations manager at a web design agency, just within a year, it’s really touching to think and I think that’s something that everyone can do, especially when you’re thinking of travelling to summer camp, or if you’ve been there before, just take a moment out of your day to think of what you’ve had, and where you’ve come from and the journey that you’ve taken, because no one can really take that away from you. The position I have at the moment is unbelievable, because I was actually scrolling through some previous personal development program review documents that I wrote with my, one of my previous bosses. And in one of the questions it was where do you see yourself in five years sort of thing? In that answer, I said, I want to be an operations manager. Then in the space of one year, I find myself in that position. So I’m incredibly grateful for that. And I think I’ve probably developed a lot as a person too, because not only have I got a better job, better title, better team, and a better work-life balance.

Where I can make a real impact on my small corner of the world. But also in speaking with people that have gone to my camp as well and have them preview my book. They really see how far I’ve come to so that was quite touching. When I sent them a copy of the book and they said, Oh my god, your writings really good. It really reads well, it’s entertaining. It’s funny, and it paints a real good picture of what summer camp was like. So I thought I’ll just throw that in there anyway. So I think for the most part, that’s pretty much it for this episode. Just to give you a bit of a heads up of what to expect. I’ve got a full content calendar for the next few months, probably up until the book release. And I have ideas for each one. I’ve got some really cool episodes off my sleeve, which we haven’t really done before. I’m really excited to return to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp and I appreciate all of your patience in the run-up to these episodes.

It’s great to be back. It’s great to have a book that’s actually finished now and you should stay tuned for the next episode because we’re going to be talking all things book cover related. Trust me, you really want to be there for that. It’s going to be a great one.

So thank you again for your time. Thank you for coming over to this podcast. It’s great to be back. And I shall see you next Tuesday.