Reviewing my latest interview with a debut novelist, I’m wondering how come I keep selecting novels where the protagonist goes hungry. Is this about my drive to connect writing with my garden produce, or the authors’ own obsession with food?

As I tuck in five-year-old Pea alongside twelve-year-old Haoua, I’m hoping the grown-up protagonists of the other novels, like the anxious but hands-off adults in The Night Rainbow, will offer her something to eat. Yet, somehow, I don't think Futh will notice that Pea’s mother’s forgotten to feed her, and I’m really not sure how patient Grace would be with small children, but perhaps Satish could get his mother to rustle up some party food. I’ve read some of Pea’s interesting thoughts on food, but does she like chakli? I suppose she’d be willing to try anything, as long as Margot goes first.

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Oh how I moan sometimes: it's too hard, I can't think of the next word/sentence/paragraph/idea, no-one appreciates my work, not another rejection email surely? And so on and so forth. Then I remember, it's my choice...

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My creative writing tutor presents the class with prompts, catalysts, each week to inspire a twenty minute exercise. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it surely doesn't!

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A writer is someone who edits, not just culling the dross but being brave enough to throw out the good stuff if it isn't earning its keep. All that waste would horrify Selina, the central character in my newly published short story, Fat Footprints, whose close relationships are in jeopardy due to her taking the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle to the extreme. So it's on her behalf I'm asking if there's ever a way of reusing those unwanted words. Like taking our fashion mistakes to the charity shop and wilted vegetables to the compost, is there ever life after death for our redundant sentences?

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Rejection slips...well, more likely emails, these days. They're pretty useless once read. What about something more creative that would at least give you an end-product if you accumulated enough of them?

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Sometimes, listening to other writers, or reading their work, can inspire; sometimes it just makes me feel like giving up.

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Caroline feels slightly ashamed of herself - because when disasters happen, they DO make good stories...

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In Liz Jensen's apocalyptic climate-change thriller, Gabrielle Fox is a new psychologist in an adolescent forensic mental health unit. Taking up the post on the rebound from a personal and professional crisis of her own, Gabrielle is no match for the disturbed and disturbing teenager with whom she becomes entangled. Bethany Krall, a matricidal religious maniac (PS– not her actual diagnosis), is about to embark on a psychological and geographical journey and is determined to take Gabrielle along.

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Further thoughts on the word 'literally.' Call me a pedant, but I think it's sad that common usage, instead of gentle education about the true meaning of a word, allows antonyms to become synonyms.

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It's something I do - THEN I add the meaning designated by the context. Is it just me? Is it some sort of semantic pragmatic quirk?

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