Peggy Blair is a regular contributor to You’re Booked. This month she offers a post not about the process of writing, but about living. Read her regular blog, Getting Published, here.

I had the very great pleasure of meeting a woman today who has terminal cancer. I had contacted a number of owners in a condo building I’m hoping to find a place in, to see if anyone was interested in selling. I decided, in my letter, to … Read More >>

Well, yesterday I blogged about writing what you know. And last night, David Seidler won the Oscar for best screen play by doing exactly that.

I didn’t realize until he referred to it in his acceptance speech that Seidler was himself a stammerer. It was a condition he developed as a toddler and struggled with for most of his life. Like the character in his screenplay (King George VI, or Bertie), Seidler was forced into some pretty … Read More >>

Debbie Bennett

I’ve realised over the years that publishable quality does not equal commercial viability. In other words, it doesn’t matter how well you can write or how good your story is, unless a publisher can directly equate your potential book to sales – lots of sales – then a debut author doesn’t stand a chance in the 21st century. It’s a hard lesson to learn when you’ve written for pleasure since primary school and when … Read More >>

Back to a post focussed on writing! For the last few weeks, my blog has meandered around a bit, probably because I’m in the midst of my own version of writer’s block. Hard to advise aspiring authors on how to write when you’re sort of stuck yourself.

I’m about two hundred pages into the third book in the Inspector Ramirez series.

At this stage, I can see the difficulties in writing a series successfully. How much information do you … Read More >>

Inquiring Readers: Lynn Shepherd, author of  Murder at Mansfield Park, has written this guest post. She lives in in Berkshire, England, with her husband Simon. Murder at Mansfield Park is her first novel, but she’s been a professional copywriter for the last ten years. Going freelance in 2000 gave her the time she needed to see if she could make a dream into a reality. Ten years and two and a half unpublished novels later, it’s … Read More >>

Well, gang, for those of you who have been following my travels (and travails) of getting published, it’s looking very good. I can’t give you details yet, but I’m pretty excited by my most recent discussions with my Canadian agent.

So much of what has happened around The Beggar’s Opera (and the second in the series, as well) involves sheer luck. And timing.

I’ve never lost sight of the fact that I wouldn’t have representation, that I wouldn’t … Read More >>

Kathryn Halton

Well I’m sitting here, looking at the blizzard in my garden, and thinking about the much sunnier day I spent at last July’s Creative Thursday, run as part of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

It was my second time at the event, and I thought it was much improved. Instead of a series of lectures, the sessions were workshop style, with plenty of short writing exercises for us to get our teeth into.

Joseph … Read More >>

Rin photographed by Pippa Joyce

On the afternoon of Sunday 31st October this year, I sat in a riverside café in the centre of Bristol wondering if I was making a huge mistake.

In just a few short hours, as November dawned, an epic literary adventure would begin. Around the world more than 200,000 people would set off to write a minimum of 50,000 word each – a staggering 10 billion in total – by the end … Read More >>

I haven’t yet received any of the book contracts my agents have negotiated (just a summary of the terms) but I thought I’d take a look at what should normally be in one. This stuff is not remotely sexy — it’s a tough read — but having come this far in the process, it doesn’t make any sense not to at least understand the basics.

The best summary I’ve seen so far of the general provisions that should be in … Read More >>

Is modern technology killing the detective?

Maybe it’s just me, but don’t you hate it when detectives get a leg up from modern technology? I’m far from being a Luddite, but I do find it dull when the narrative trots off in the brightly-lit direction of the internet, aided and abetted by assorted blunt weaponry such as the Blackberry or iPad.

Mobile phones are the worst offenders. Every character always knows where every other character is at … Read More >>

The Dundee International Book Prize (£10,000) was set up in 1999 with the first winner receiving the award in 2000. Initially it was a biennial competition but is now open for entries every year.

When this competition was initially set up it seemed to be a fabulous idea and something worth aiming for. Since then the competition has grown to the prestigious event it is today. Needless to say, over the years, … Read More >>

I like to think that the as yet bit of as yet unpublished won’t be forever. But the more time passes, the more the publishing industry seems to contract with the recession and the harder it seems to be to get a foot in a door that’s barely open a crack. Sometimes I wonder who I have to sleep with or murder in order to tick enough boxes on the “marketability” questionnaire. … Read More >>