I was mooching around the net, and came across this article by Jim Crace which was in the Guardian Review. I remember reading at the time, but was taken aback by just how funny and wise it still seems. So here's the link, in case anyone missed it first time round.

Emma

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1405386,00.html

Thanks EmmaD, I've printed it off to have a good slow read tomorrow.
Di

Thanks, Emma, that's very interesting, but I do hope he's joking about The Rules (a term I can't think of without reference to that scarey American dating-as-war guide by those sad women who ended up divorced. But I digress ).

By the way, how did it go for you at the Frankfurt Book Fair? I saw that Claire Alexander did a good deal on foreign rights for a novel about Venice that doesn't yet have a British publisher. She sounds hot!

Larissa.

How good was that.

I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I laughed out loud at least twice. Although his correspondence was sarcastic it was also very honest, brutally honest. It's really amazing that he took the time to write the letters.

I think sometimes it is kinder and more helpful to be honest. However, there is a flip side to everything and sometimes a person can be completely decimated by criticism and stop working.

I'm a great fan of Julia Cameron the author of The Artists' Way. She says, be careful who you show your work to and don't show it too soon. She has lots of really good advice for writers and artists.

Recently I was listening to a podcast of an interview with Margaret Attwood. She was saying how she had to employ someone to protect her "time" because she was unable to say no. This resulted in her work suffering. It sounds like Jim Grace needs a protector too. I tried to find a link to the Margaret Attwood interview but wasn't successful.

Thanks for the link.

Di

Jim Crace is a very nice man, so I do wonder if he's had to develop a strategy, perhaps different from Atwood's, to fend of people he has an impulse to help.

Di, yes I'm a Cameron fan too - and how right she is! I remember someone posting on a thread which has since been removed, 'what is there to fear? about posting work,' and finding myself saying, 'there's a lot to fear' which I think is true, and is why you have to be so careful.

Larissa, re Frankfurt, I haven't heard from Headline about foreign rights, which they hold, yet as they're only now releasing bound proofs for potential buyers to see. But apparently there was a lot of interest. Clare has the US rights, and got a terrific pre-emptive offer for the The M of L, which she's accepted on my behalf. Much champagne all round.

Emma

Congratulations, Emma - that's great news about the US pre-emptive offer!

Frances