There was one thing I forgot to say in my last blog (that’s the trouble with long entries -- it’s easy to forget points which were very clear in your head at the start!). Although writers should, in my opinion, measure success based on how happy they are with the stories they create, there is of course the possibility that any writer MIGHT hit the big time and make loads of money!!! That’s another thing that keeps us going when times are hard and the whole world seems to be against us. If you work hard, you can catch a lucky break at any point of your career. There are writers like me who got a break fairly early, but there are others like Anthony Horowitz who took more time to really get going. My star started to rise with my third published book (i.e. Cirque Du Freak). Anthony had carved out a very nice career for himself over a period of roughly 20 years, but it wasn’t until Alex Rider came along that he went stratospheric. Eoin Colfer took off early with Artemis Fowl. Jacqueline Wilson and Roald Dahl struggled to establish themselves. There’s no way of telling when fortune will smile on a writer. Sometimes quality shines through quickly and is rewarded -- other times it can take years, even decades. But it can happen to ANYONE. Honestly. That might seem like an OTT statement, but it’s not. There are people who’ve written drivel for 20 or 30 years, who suddenly turn around and stumble across a great story that makes them millions. There are books which go ignored when first released (Foundation by Isaac Asimov, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho spring to mind immediately), which later are acknowledged as classics and go on to sell phenonemally. Every would-be writer should bear this in mind -- even if all looks grim, and it seems like you’re never going to catch that wave of public recognition and financial reward -- hang in there. Because your moment CAN come. Don’t bank on it happening -- as I said, make quality your aim, and be prepared to settle for that if you have to. But don’t be afraid to dream big either. As crass as it might sound to echo a Lottery slogan, it really and honestly "COULD be YOU"!!!!!

Finished my first edit of book 4 of my four book series today. Very pleased with how it currently reads, although there will be a LOT of tweaking and fine-tuning to do over the next few years. But for an early draft ... yes, I think it’s sitting very nicely.

Saw a French film called 36 this evening (original title was 36 Quai des Orfevres). I was very impressed with it. It had some flaws, but I loved the way it started out as one movie and then led you in a completely unpredictable direction. Up to the halfway point, I thought I had it all figured out, and was settling in to follow it to a fairly normal conclusion -- then it all changed and I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen next!! But it did it in a natural, believable way -- a truly difficult trick to pull off. This, I think, is what more writers should be looking to do -- pull the rug out from under readers and take them on an unexpected journey. I’m always looking for the different angle, a way to suck readers in and then land a sucker punch (in the beginning, nobody knew Cirque Du Freak was about a vampire until Steve confronted Mr Crepsley quite a way into the book; it was quite late in Lord Loss before people realised they were reading a werewolf story). There might be no truly original stories left to tell, but there are always new ways to tell old stories, and there always will be. You just have to search hard to find them ...