BUBU really, but what’s a misspelling between friends? The phonetic version is more fun and laughter is so good for one’s well-being. And, talking of things that are or aren’t good for your health, I like a mean glass of Rosé, adore pizza and Belgian chocolates… Yet I’ve noticed, since writing my first novel four years ago, that in certain literary circles I suffer from only one vice worth talking about: Books Under Bed Unpublished.

It’s the proverbial elephant in the room, with its trunk firmly knotted in case it can’t resist the urge, when you finally get that deal, to trumpet to one at all that it’s a joke, you being called a debut novelist - because, in actual fact, you’ve got two or four or more novels under the bed at home. In fact, “Debut Novelist” is a misleading term. Yes, it’s an author making their debut on the public scene, but to the man on the street it implies that the debut is in terms of actually writing a novel as well...



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Sometimes in the last few days I've thought that my head - my writing head, that is - would explode.

Somehow, in just over a month, I've written longhand two first-draft chapters of Kindred & Affinity and after sixteen hours' sorting-out-and-typing of Chapter Two at the weekend, discovered that I've got 31,500 words. By the plan (which, of course, is never set in stone) that's a fifth of the whole thing, which would make it 10,000 words longer than The Mathematics of Love. Yes, there are already 150 separate notes that will take anything from a minute to a day to resolve. Yes, I don't know how it ends, not exactly, though I know who will be there at the end, and I'm not even thinking about the fine-polishing, not least because I'm still not convinced by one of the voices. But it's there, and I'm reasonably sure that the big bones, the architecture, is right. And because it's there, the remaining four-fifths are feeling much more distinct and substantial in my mind too.

To that end, in lunchtimes, in bed, in the bath, on the train, I'm reading Roy Porter's Flesh in the Age of Reason, which is so brilliantly written (you don't know how witty and erudite can be combined till you've read Porter at his best) that it's only when you sit back that you realise just how densely argued and swift-moving it is.

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As Such. More of an observation. And something I've been pondering.

It's to do with submissions. To do with us writers sending off our stuff to try to be published in good places. In the places we like to go. The mags, journals, ezines we like to read.

And really, it's just one aspect of the process, which I should add doesn't always happen, that I've been thinking about.

It's this.

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I thought I should note down that I did my first book-signing on Saturday, at Waterstones in Chichester, an event which somehow is always now lodged in my head as THE SIGNING (sounding perilously close to 'The Shining'). It was very surreal walking up to the shop and seeing a poster of the novel outside in the street. Sadly the local paper 'forgot' to publish the feature which was supposed to promote the event, so I had to rely on the friendly faces who'd promised to drop by, and a few slightly disapproving-looking mothers who allowed their daughters to pick up the books and then reluctantly allowed me to sign. The staff in the shop were brilliant - friendly and welcoming, and they'd set up a really nice table with displays of the novel and a chair for me to sit in. It's a funny thing, doing a book-signing. It reminded me a bit of my stewarding for the National Trust. A lot of the time I was aware that I was just sitting, being ignored, while people wandered about picking up copies of The Diary of Anne Frank. From time to time somebody came over and gave me a hard stare. And then it all became more worthwhile when a nice smiling person would come over and ask questions and show interest. 17 copies later I was quite relieved to hear that I'd come to the end of my signing. I left feeling - what? Proud? Relieved? Authorly? Mildly silly? Knackered? A mixture of all of those at once. I'm not sure if I'd be keen to do it again. I think I would, and I'd like to meet more of the kids who've read the book - but I'd make sure next time that there was more publicity surrounding the event.

Once upon a time, when you were, oh, let’s say, about 13 or so for sake of argument, you probably had your very first crush. Not that you knew then what a crush was as such, or remotely why you had it. No. All that happened was that one day you were the proud owner of a whole range of feelings and sensations that you had never had before. Upon that day, everything about you changed irrevocably irreversibly and forever. You didn’t know that then either; you just thought there was something strangely compelling about Adam Ant. Especially the way he swung through the stained glass window in the video for Stand and Deliver.


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Camilla Bolton joined Darley Anderson Agency in August 2007. She is an Associate Agent for Crime and Thriller fiction, having formerly been in newspaper journalism.


Which 3 authors, dead or alive, would you invite to dinner?
Stephen King, Roald Dahl and Maeve Binchy.

Email or phone?
Phone definitely as I’m not the best at spelling or grammar.

Cosy crime – passé or popular?
Good page-turning cosy crime will return, especially with authors like Alexander McCall Smith re-inventing it with a unique twist. So I’d say it’s zoomed past passé and is heading for popularity.

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It's all very well the radio saying don't go out unless your journey is really necessary, but I'd been looking forward to 'La Boheme' for weeks.

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Having finally worked out how to transfer photos from my phone to the computer, I have unfortunately (but possibly, for those who know me, unsurprisingly) misplaced the USB cable that would allow me to do so. Happily, however, I took the camera rather than the phone with me on my walk today...


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What do these topics have in common?

1. Premature babies
2. Exotic carpets
3. The lifecycle of wolves
4. Native American superstitions
5. Inner workings of fairground carousels
6. Anglo Saxon burial methods


The answer is nothing, but they’re all subjects I’ve had to research for my fiction. Not for the same book, I might add (hmm..maybe that’s where I’ve gone wrong) but they all had two things in common: they were vital to the story and I knew zilch about them. Researching your novel can be a daunting business for the unpublished.

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Not that I'm that well up on American Presidents, either. For me, they generally come heavily mediated by Hollywood films, and if Frank Langella's current portrayal of Richard Nixon is anything to go by there's probably little connection with reality.


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