Just had an email from New Scientist, they are putting The White Road short story up in their online edition TODAY, possibly the audio and the text version! Ok, all a little too exciting, things move so fast. Will link when I get the link...Aaaargh!

Also: I am interviewed today in one of Israel's national newspapers, Haaretz, which has an English edition and a section where they focus on English speakers in Israel....

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Spent this morning researching sleep apnoea for a short story. According to the The British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association, sleep apnoea is defined as the ‘cessation of airflow during sleep preventing air from entering the lungs caused by an obstruction’. My research turned up the story of Philip Skeates, sleep apnoea sufferer (Guardian, A Breath of Fresh Air) as well as a feature in the Independent, Brahms made an awfully big noise in bed ... [more]

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Was thrilled to see a lovely mention of Maloney's Law on the Writing and All That site today, which you can see here (see full post for all links). (It's the second book down in the Spread The Word list). Many thanks indeed, Caro - so glad you liked Maloney. And thank you for the mention of The Bones of Summer too! I particularly enjoyed her comment on Paul's taste in whisky and men - very true indeed. Though I must admit to having a soft spot for Dominic nonetheless ...




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My dead friend’s daughter has started blogging, and is posting her childhood diaries; she’s just reminded me of a scene between me and Roseanne in Manchester. We were both pregnant; I was six weeks ahead of her, relaxing after a bath one evening, when her husband came panicking at my door.
‘She needs you. You have to come right now.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘She’s locked herself in the bathroom. I don't know what's wrong with her.’ For all the rush to get me up there he didn't seem really worried. She was standing up, moving around and not in any pain.

So I got dressed and followed him up the road, and it was quite a walk. When I arrived she dragged me into the bathroom and pulled out a breast.

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The lovely Rosy Barnes at MockDuck has mentioned that she is looking forward to Kill-Grief. Hooray! Someone on Goodreads added it to their “to read – forthcoming” list too, so perhaps I will sell two copies! Thank you Rosy and person-on-Goodreads.

Rosy was talking about the Spread the Word initiative, which aims to champion good books that haven’t had the publicity to reach a wide readership. I know exactly which one gets my vote in the fiction section – Jim Dodge’s Fup. It’s a surreal and moving story set on a California ranch, where the cantankerous Grandaddy Jake and his gentle giant grandson, Tiny, revive an abandoned duckling with moonshine whiskey. At only 89 pages, it’s more a fairy tale than a novel, but it is crammed with humour, beauty and emotion, and it brought the exclamation “Shitfire!” into my vocabulary.


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Ah, the rot’s set in already, Carruthers. There was frost on the grass (though Lord H insisted it was ash – though where he thought the ash came from is another question entirely …) this morning and the car had its first thin layer of ice on the windows, groan. And I’m wearing my winter coat. Soon it will be time for the winter duvet, you know. Not to mention the hot water bottle and the bedsocks. And that’s only in the day time. As you can tell, here in Godalming we maintain our position at the cutting edge of fashion ...


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I have received a sample of the 'exciting packaging' that Macmillan are sending the proof of CHANGELING in, and it is so bloody cool: the book appears to 'float' in the centre of the transparent balloon-like envelope and the only way to get at it is to pop the entire thing. I knew that my publishers were planning to put something together for the proofs, but I had no idea what - I assumed it might be some envelopes with the title of the book printed on them - I certainly did not expect anything as fantastic as this.


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So I'm doing the Happy Author Dance round the kitchen, because the boxes of my author's copies of A Secret Alchemy have arrived. Twelve hardback and twelve of the big, handsome export trade paperback: I even thanked the courier man. And yes, it does look gorgeous, and yes, I did take it to bed with me yesterday (well, it spent the night on the bedside table, but it was well within patting distance), and yes, when I got up I brought it back downstairs, where it's been glowing quietly on my desk all day.

But why it should be such a thrill, I'm not really sure.


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Ruth has bravely struggled into work today, but is still suffering, poor thing. I’m not sure she’ll make the first night of Pirates of Penzance tonight, or at least not much of it, which is such a shame. We shall go on Thursday and fly the flag whether or not she’s there. Naturally. But I do hope she gets better soon.

Meanwhile I’ve spent the morning continuing to try to beat yesterday’s minutes into submission. The jury’s out on who might win, I have to say. I suspect in the end nobody will be able to tell the victor. Lunchtime saw me at the Writers’ Group meeting. It was the first one where new students might be able to come along too, and we had two or three which was nice. People seemed to enjoy the exercises as well, so that was good, though I don’t think I was quite as on top of it all as I was last month. However I did remember to take my calming pills this morning, and top up the effects with my relaxation spray, so at least I sounded less like a gazelle on speed than usual. One hopes ...


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I've just been drawing up a list of writing prompts I can use with my group. Below, in case anyone is in need of inspiration, or is curious, is the last list of prompts I used. Feel free to use any of them - and if you decide to write something from them, let me know - I'd love to see what you came up with.

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