Cars and cupcakes.

I hate cars. I treat it to a set of new spark plugs and an oil change and what does it do to reward me? Seized front brake. Well, if it thinks it’s getting cleaned then it is very much mistaken.

I’ve spent the last week hard at work on editing. With the rather impressive sales of ‘Bringing home the stars’ has come a renewed interest in some of my earlier books. The only problem is that they are currently out of print whilst All Mouse Media concentrates on the current book. I went back and had a glance through the manuscripts of my previous books and have come to the conclusion that I want to edit them first. The book I have chosen to work on first is The Atlantic Connection. Writing is like anything else that if you practice it enough, you get better. I look back now and feel that I had good ideas that could be realised a little better. So I’ve done what Terry Pratchett did with the second edition of his The Carpet People and pulled the threads and rewritten it somewhat. That makes the editing process a lot slower, but it should be worth it.

After I’m done with The Atlantic Connection I’m going to move on to editing the follow up book to BHTS. I don’t like to think of it as a sequel, as that implies that you have to have read the first book first – you don’t. It is also true to say that the first book ties up loose ends so that it does not leave you thinking at the end “So I have to buy another?” But AMM requested that a follow up be on the cards, and the popularity of BHTS suggests that more on a similar theme would be good. Zoë said this even before BHTS went to print so I obliged in writing a first draft then. I’m glad I did, because I haven’t had an awful lot of time to do more writing on the signing tour (other than my name in the front of books). I’ll work on editing up a second draft then Zoë wants to read it before suggesting corrections.

I’m signing off now to go and fetch a lovely universal one-size-fits-all screwdriver – aka a hammer – and adjust that sticking front brake calliper on my car. No doubt the air will turn blue, so children cover those ears!