I'm getting there. I'm pretty happy with my synopsis, but it is a bit long. A lot happens in the story and to properly explain the outcome, I feel I need to reaveal at least some of the plot.

JB

Well done! It's hell. I'm sure you should reveal some of it, just not all. And wipe your life-blood off before you send it.

Emma

I have a funny feeling about this book of mine. Either way, it has been the most fun a boy can have alone...well, almost.

JB

No, it's never quite that much fun. But slightly easier to talk about, and marginally more likely to result in financial reward. I nearly said, unfortunately only slightly longer-lasting. But then, it's different for girls...

Emma

<Added>

What I really nearly said was, fortunately only slightly longer lasting.

Emma you're a card!

I wonder what I'd do if I had to choose between the two? (And don't be too sure about the finacial reward thing...some people would disagree.)

JB

I only meant financial reward if you're on your own. Or is there some aspect of the industry I've missed?

Fortunately (got it right this time) you don't have to choose between the two, in a manner of speaking, if the plot calls for it. And that's made me realise that I shall be looking all sorts of strangers in the eye (not to mention the he-men from production and sales) who've actually read chapters eight and ten, where... well, you get the idea.

Emma

The words Lesley and Grantham spring to mind. Technically, he was on his own, but let's not go there.

Good luck! Any day now I'll be baring my soul again to the literate barbs of insufferable agents!

JB

The words Lesley and Grantham spring to mind.

Not if I can help it.

Though I do think one of the things that makes sex so hard to write well is that most of it looks ridiculous/sordid/incomprehensible when seen from outside. Or is that just another girl thing?

Good luck with sending out. Do you know what you're doing next? I always put a bottle of wine and clean notebook ready for when I get back from the post box.

Emma

I have idea overload. I've already begun the next book in the trilogy and the plot is taking shape. I've made a bit of a hard act to follow for myself! But I have every confidence in the new story. Should be as much fun as the first.

I may take a break and work on short stories and a novella I'm planning to write about Dracula, and also a non-fantasy book to follow up my non-fantasy novel that's being published. So, a bit of a work load there.

You?

JB

Well, there I was thinking that the children are back at school (apart from the one who's upstairs being poorly this week) and the editing's done and PhD-conducive peace is about descend and good, because the ideas for Polished Lamp are beginning to gel and I want to get brooding and planning and scribbling notes... And then my editor says, Shadows has gone to be copy edited at high speed so we can take it to Frankfurt, so it'll be back with you in a fortnight and all being well, publication in the Summer! And photo, please and author questionnaire and and and...

Emma

Fun isn't it? I had to do one of those awful questionaires to, and I didn't take it that seriously. Kept making snide little jokes. My publisher asked me to redo it so, po faced, I put on my literary wig and obliged.

One thing is clear - writing is the easy part.

JB

Yes, struggling at the moment. Hideous! Witty becomes facetious, serious becomes pompous, plain becomes banal, proud becomes conceited. Not helped by the fact that I used to read these questionnaires when I was working for a distributor, and the authors all seemed so pompous, banal, conceited...

Is there anyone who is able to write these things without cringing? To quote 4 Weddings, 'Well if they are, they aren't English'

Emma

It makes me want to go for outright arrogance, every time. Just to make for an amusing read in itself.

Q: So when did you first begin writing?

A: Well, it is obviously a God-given gift, and my genius was always with me. Once my destiny led me to pick up my pen and bend to my art, I suppose the magic just flowed out as a matter of course.

Q: What other writer's do you admire?

A: Generally ones who have been inspired by my own work. Now and again, I may read an amatuer effort, you know, just to see how developed my own skill is.

Q:Were you surprised by the success of the book?

A: Not at all. As my mother used to say, a work of incredible resonance will always be identified.

Of course, I'd never dare, but false modesty can be equally as stomach churning.

JB

The trouble is, people don't like false modesty, but they dislike true confidence even more.

Every now and again in the last ten years, someone would say, 'So, do you think you'll ever be published?' And I'd suddenly be bored with lying modestly, and would say what I genuinely believed: 'But of course. It's just a matter of time. The thing is, you see, I'm very, very good.' One or two people just accepted that as a statement of fact - usually the very serene and slightly alternative ones. But most people were taken aback and became very uncomfortable, either arguing or disappearing rapidly.

And even on WW - where quite a few must feel like this, because otherwise why would we keep writing? - I feel I ought hedge this story round with lots of disclaimers and qualifiers. Certainly there's no other area of my life where I have that kind of confidence. But I regard it as a sign of spiritual growth that I'm posting this at all!

Emma

<Added>

Sorry 'quite a few must feel like this' is ambiguous. I should have written 'quite a few must feel as I do'.

In this country, more than anywhere else I've travelled, people hate success. Not their own, but other people's. If someone they know succeeds, they despise it. All you have to do is pick up anyone of our newspapers or magazines to see how ripping successful people to shreds is something of a national sport.

Likewise, if you are seen to be having an unshakable belief in yourself, or your art, people will try their damndest to give you reason to doubt. We are a pathalogically jealous race. It's a by product of the class system and the 'born a pauper die a pauper attitude'.

I think one shouldn't be supressed by that and stick two literal fingers up at these naysayers. If you're good at something, don't let anything or anyone stand in your way.

JB