I have been writing and re-writing my novel now for ages and am amazed at the places it's taken me to. The characters are doing their thing and not knowing what surprises they might come up with is absolutely motivating. I keep on writing because I can't wait for them to unravel themselves, to peel their layers off and show me their core, the very essence of their being. And in between writing, i have been reading: Alice Munro, Hannah Pool, Caryl Phillips, Tahir Shah.
So many books, so little time in which to read

I was at the Edinburgh book festival yesterday where I had two events. Apparently, the excerpts I had chosen to read were very short (-: but brilliant nevertheless (-:(-:
I had always wanted to do Edinburgh so it was wonderful to be invited and to my utter, utter surprise, tro have a sold out event and to have people I did not know, had not bribed, come up to me to tell me they absolutely loved my, MY novel. It is a humbling but uplifting affair . It validates my work and giives me the strength to continue treading this path.
I met the amazing Patrick Neate. He is a brilliant writer; a grounded man; a wonderful conversationalist and I am so honoured bto have met him. He even bought a copy of On Black Sisters' Street and had me sign it for him!!!!

virgin blogger

Finally, I've bitten the bullet; I 've gone all 21st century and decided to join the world of bloggers. Why am I doing this now, having resisted it all these years? Methinks it's got to do with my upcoming appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I'm all nerves , have no idea which extract(s) to read and so sitting here, writing this, is a good way to manage my nerves.