A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
Virginia Woolf

It’s a very famous quote from Virginia Woolf, but I’m not sure that I agree with her about the room bit. Hell, she didn’t even have any kids she needed to lock outside, either.

Above is a picture of a view of our backyard from my writing spot.  I write at our dining room table.

It’s not for lack of space. We actually have a study but when I was working on my autism book it got too cold in there in winter, so I decamped to our gas-heated open-plan kitchen/ family/dining room.  And here I have remained here ever since.

I can write when my boys are foraging in the kitchen and the TV is blasting. A couple of scenes in Happily Ever After? were even  inspired by The Sopranos, as my hubby was watching the boxed set as I worked on the novel.

That said, I apparently have prodigious powers of concentration. I recently ran into an old work colleague from my hospital pharmacy days, who remembers me writing university essays in the tea room whilst surrounded by a dozen co-workers nattering and drinking tea.  I don’t remember that at all. I guess I was too busy concentrating on the task at hand!

Certainly the train was old. The seats sagged like the jowls of a bulldog, windows were out and strips of adhesive held together those that were left; in the corridor a prowling cat appeared to be hunting mice, and it was not unreasonable to assume his search would be rewarded. 'A Ride Through Spain' Truman Capote

Anyone who knows me well will know I have a growing addiction to writing courses. I have been to at least half a dozen in the last few years.

At one such course, about creative nonfiction, the presenter read out the above quote.  There was an audible sigh...I might cheekily suggest an orgasmic sigh...from the students. It's only a couple of sentences but you are there with Capote on that train. Masterful description. Capote may have been an odd little man, even—according to reports— an unpleasant little man, but boy the guy could write.

I was in a room full of writers, the type who love words and sentences and paragraphs and, like me, probably agonise over the placement of a comma. We lie awake at night thinking  about metaphors and shiver with excitement when we find the right word.  Maybe we’re all a little odd ourselves.

Contrast this experience with a couple of courses I’ve attended that have had a different emphasis. They’ve been courses have about marketing and selling books. It was at these courses I made the startling discovery that not everyone who wants to write a book is like me. Some of them aren’t that interested in words at all.

The first course was simply called Marketing Your Book. I was the only fiction writer amongst the crowd.  Amongst the attendees was a guy who ran a consultancy restructuring small businesses. He held seminars for small business owners and simply wanted to have a book to sell at these seminars, some value-adding merchandise. There was also a girl whose yoga book was just about to be published. I’m guessing she had a strong message to sell but her main medium of selling it was through visual images of yoga poses, not the written word.

Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be. Margaret Atwood

A couple of months ago I attended a literary event where a leading editor offered up tips and advice to group of (mostly) aspiring writers.  One thing she told her spellbound audience was:

There was one lady in particular who seemed crestfallen by this observation. I smiled at her indulgently, but I’d had the same naive belief myself— that I could write a book that would be universally liked—not so long ago!

Just in case you were under the same happy illusion I’m going to set you straight.

For a start, what genres do you like to read?  Like me, I bet you have definite likes and dislikes. Dune aside, I have little interest in science fiction. Harry Potter and Gormenghast aside, it’s much the same for fantasy novels. Conventional romances leave me completely cold.  Otherwise I guess I’ll pretty much read anything, just as long as it’s well written.

Thus if you write SF I’m unlikely to rush out and buy your book, just as you’ll not be interested in reading Happily Ever After? if women’s fiction is not your thing. However, our likes and dislikes go beyond simple preferences. Following is my (admittedly unschooled) theory for this.

When I wrote my novel, I thought it would simply be accepted as a diverting yarn without alteration or interpretation. The reader, I assumed, would be a passive vessel who would accept my story, my version of events, sort of like this:

Does the world need another writer’s blog?  The answer is possibly no, but hey, I’m here anyway.

My blog is specifically directed towards aspiring authors. As of July this year I will be the author, or co-author, of three published books—two non-fiction and one fiction—so I feel I have sufficient credentials to write about writing, or at least my particular take on it.

In this post I’m taking it easy with a video, but I will have lots to say in future.  I can assure you my ‘to do list’ is brimming.

Welcome to our first posting on our new blog.

I'm pleased to announce we've added a stake on that other well known digital domain by adding a facebook page for my book Happily Ever After?

http://www.facebook.com/Happily.Ever.After.Novel

Please visit and I hope you'll "like" it...