Writing a book is one thing. That only takes a few years of dreaming, scribbling, typing, banging your head on the desk and waking up in the middle of the night with the most original idea ever, only to discover in the morning that your bedside notebook is scrawled with stuff like “elephant – maggots – how many?”

Making it fit for anyone to read is quite another thing – more months of editing, editing again, polishing, re-editing, re-polishing. Maybe even giving the manuscript to a friend for their opinion, only to have them say ten weeks later, “Sorry, I've been, like, really busy. I'll read it soon, promise.”

But then comes the difficult bit...

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A number of people have, quite rightly, asked which charity's going to benefit from the money we raise from the photo book I'm collaborating with Katherine Lewis on.

I am very happy to be able to announce it's these people: The Alzheimer's Society.

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This is how the judging for the competition will work.

All the stories have been/will be printed off without the name of the author.

Katherine and I will, at some point later this week, go through them and pick our favourite.

Then we'll identify who wrote it. Then the author will be notified and the winner anounced.

I know it's not ideal as I'll have seen who's sent what, but believe me, that won't affect the judging because I struggle to remember what I've had for breakfast.

I thought it best to be clear on the matter, so you all knew.

And folks, there's still time to enter!

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A short whimsical interlude.

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Just another day of kicking cats and chasing vapour. Of listening to egos clash and empty platitudes placed like bandages. Of digging nails into palms beneath the desk top and trying not to yawn.




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Rosy Thornton is a talented author of Women's Fiction. Have a chance to win her third novel, Crossed Wires, which has just come out in paperback, by posting a comment! The winner shall be drawn from a hat and announced this coming Friday, 1st May.


Who is your literary hero?
Harriet Vane from Dorothy L Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

Which 3 writers, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?
Elizabeth Gaskell, Simone de Beauvoir and Maya Angelou – three women who’d really set the world to rights.

What's your favourite writing snack?
I have a fetish for dried mango at the moment – texture like shoe leather but tastes like heaven.

Longhand first or computer?
Computer – but I do jot things down on old shopping receipts sometimes, when waiting at red traffic lights.


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I'd walked around beforehand watching the runners doing stretching and limbering up, smelling the tang of liniment and asking could I take photos. As I pointed the camera towards a young man in a Batman costume his friend encouraged him to move about: 'You could be famous on YouTube, man'. So I switched to 'video', only, as you'll see, towards the end of his display.


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Well, outside the sun has been a shinin' and the breeze has been cool - pretty much perfect in my book. But I've been inside. Working. And I've been reaonably productive, I think. I've written a couple of bits, I've worked on a guest post (I should have done long, long ago) and I've made headway with the photo book.

And on that subject I'm delighted to be able to say that we've had a load of entries for the competition. And there's still time for you to enter. Go on, you know you want to!

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AAARRRGGGHHHH! Finally reached page 4 of 7 filling in the Marathon 2010 entry form and the website has temporarily closed...

I have been sitting at my laptop for nearly two hours trying to enrol in next years marathon. I am getting chucked out from various stages through the long processes of web pages, which are taking an age to download and then finally got excited as I reached a page that allowed me to enter my name. I then had to press 'next page'. I pondered over this, took the plunge and now I am back at square one and trying to just get back onto the home page..... Maybe I will try a different marathon while I am still young and fit enough to take part!