When my novel, Something Beginning With, first came out, I remember a friend telling me it had been on the longlist to be chosen as the book one UK village would all read that year. I thought she was having me on, but I've just discovered the website for the tiny village of Waverton (population 2,000), and am very chuffed to see my book there in the archives. What a fantastic idea though - to support first books by new authors through actually reading them. I'm really looking forward to seeing who they pick this year - the list alone looks varied enough to give no clue.

I'm behind with my writing prompts this week as life has popped in and shaken me up. Here are some I'm planning to use in bursts this weekend ...

a) Painted toenails always make me ...

b) Reading My Son (a la Catherine Smith)

c) Putting away my summer clothes

d) Be patient and ....

"Talent is such a small part of it. Willingness to work hard to learn the skills. (Including the nuts and bolts like spelling and grammar.) Patience to do the necessary revising and if necessary rewriting to get it right. Persistence in the face of rejection. Judgment in deciding what advice to listen to and whom not to trust. Humility to know when you're exerting suction. Knowledge, all sorts of knowledge, knowledge of what's been written, knowledge of the world and its peoples, knowledge of physical science, knowledge of at least one other language to give you perspective on your own. And most important of all: understanding of human beings and why they act the way they do and the way they interact with each other, which can take a lifetime to master but without it a writer is a failure. Maybe a clever failure, maybe sometimes an entertaining one, but a failure all the same."

William Sanders

For my second guest in the Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit, I'm really pleased to
introduce Karin Gillespie's new book, not least because I think it looks wonderful. I went into a London bookshop at the weekend and asked for a funny book, which stumped everyone. They said they'd never been asked for one before and couldn't recommend any at first, not even mine! Let's have more funny books, I say. And here's news of Karin's...


“Each character is lovingly crafted in Gillespie's hilarious, heartwarming, and often irreverent look at senior living in small-town America.”— Starred Review Booklist


Dollar Daze

The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love

Karin Gillespie

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Comment overheard under the hair dryer at the Dazzling Do’s

Karin Gillespie’s Bottom Dollar Girls are back with a sugar-spun vengeance in Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love (Simon & Schuster; August 2006; $19.95). Broaching the age-old question – Is it ever too late to find one’s heart’s desire? – the feisty ladies of Cayboo Creek are suddenly blindsided by schoolgirl flights of fancy when unexpected romance enters their lives.

Mavis Loomis, Birdie Purdy, and Gracie Tobias, widows in their mid-sixties are certain their dating days are over until they observe their friend eighty-something Attalee Gaines in tempestuous relationship with Dooley Prichard, a trifocal-wearing charmer. If it’s not too late for Attalee, how can it be too late for them?

Unfortunately the eligible men in Cayboo Creek are as picked over as a garage sale at noontime. Things look discouraging until an old high school heartthrob comes to town and Birdie and Mavis compete for his attentions. In the meantime socialite Gracie Tobias finds unlikely love in the arms of a rugged duct doctor. Can she overlook the vast differences in their backgrounds?

All of the books in series have been selected as featured alternatives for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs. Bet Your Bottom Dollar has been optioned for film by the actor James Woods. Gillespie (www.karingillespie.com) is also co-author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel. (Simon and Schuster, January 2007) and has a story called TRASH TALK in This is Chick Lit ((http://chicklit.smartpopbooks.com/news.htm)

Praise for Dollar Daze
“A sweet and amusing tale of romance and lust for the older crowd”—Kirkus

“Gillespie writes with such conviction that readers are thrust right into Cayboo Creek and the lives of the Bottom Dollar Girls….charismatic and replete with poignancy, a story to pass on.”---Romantic Times, four and a half stars

“Laugh-out--loud”—Atlanta Magazine Critic’s Pick

“Fun factor remains high from first chapter to last… The Bottom Dollar Girls…. provide the simple pleasure of an ice-cold bottle of cola and a bag of salty peanuts and that’s just fine.”

David Marshall James, The Columbia State

“Bless her heart, she's done it again. Karin Gillespie's latest installment of the Bottom Dollar Girls series is a fun, breezy read. As tried and true as ham biscuits at a senior center potluck… the book reminds us of what's important just as often as it entertains.

Dawn Baumbartner Vaughan, Durham Herald-Sun

The deadline for the second National Short Story Prize is not too far away now - 31st October. The prize is the world's largest, with the first prizewinner gaining £15,000. Last year's winner was James Lasdun with his story, 'An Anxious Man'. In an interview at the time of the award, he gave the following advice to writers:

Read and study: the obvious. Live in as conscious a way as you can. Get used to turning your experience into language, keep a journal. Read your favourite writers analytically and consciously as well as for pleasure. Then write!

And my writing prompt for today is going to be ... anxiety (an easy one for me!)

See this, it's the face of Mars. Have you seen anything more strange? It makes me tingle. You can get daily pictures from space here.

Having spent the last hour reading over my just finished notebook before I put it away and get out a nice new one, I'm feeling nostalgic about the previous six months of writing. My prompt for today is going to come from one of a list of headlines from the Daily Mail I copied out and never did anything with - I've made the bad mistake of not dating it, but seems like an average Daily Mail day to me! I love the idea of taking some of these statements at face value and writing on...

How 200 people a day vanish into thin air.
Shadow of a supermodel
The end of authority.
A generation out of control.
Sordid secrets of the English lady.
Naturists on the path to victory.
How men take control in the 'zapper battle'.
We also do Posh.
Boss yourself around.
Night patrols will be able to gag noisy neighbours.
You CAN change the shape of your body - we're the living proof.

“Handsome words don't butter cabbage.” German saying
And my writing prompt for today is going to be ... ugly words.

Inspired by this article in the Toronto Star, I'm going to write about my characters FORAGING today.
And I'm reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the moment, so here's a short story, Eyes of the Blue Dog

Whether you've got kids or not, this time of year, going back to school time, seems to bring up mixed emotions, and that's my writing prompt for today.

I was stimulated by this article on Jeanette Winterson's wonderful webpage. I like what she says about reading in particular:

If reading reclaims time, it re-aligns time too. Time for us is always slipping away – we talk about losing time, finding time, making time, and taking time. The well-being we feel when we don’t notice time, because we are happy or engrossed or in love, is the result of those rare moments when time inside us and time outside us are not in conflict. Reading is another way of allowing this to happen, and as it becomes a habit, like all habits it affects the rest of our behaviour too. No question, reading is good for you.

Remember those games where you would have to make as many words as possible from one long one? Well, this version is particularly addictive. Eat your heart out Countdown!
And my writing prompt for the day is ... scrambled words for breakfast.

My writing prompt for today comes from Margaret Atwood's new book, Moral Disorder and is to write about the child of this woman:

She would turn into a woman others came to for advice. She would be called in emergencies. She would roll up her sleeves and dispense with sentimentality, and do whatever blood-soaked, bad-smelling thing had to be done. She would become adept with axes.

Something to read for the weekend? Try this story, Afterwords by Laurie Mazzaferro from Carve Magazine.

And my writing prompt for today is going to be: What I don't remember.

I missed the Edinburgh Book Festival this year, so am pleased to see that recordings of selected talks and readings are now up on the website, particularly Paul Muldoon's.

So the 'planet' that toppled Pluto from the starry ranks is going to be called Eris. There's something tasty about that name. As the press release says:

In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris also caused strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict definition of the term planet - and that eventually led to Pluto losing the status it had held since its discovery in 1930.

According to the website, Skyscript, Pluto also has discord behind the meaning of its name:

In Greek mythology Pluto is Hades, god of the underworld, and the era of Pluto, including both Nazism and the use of nuclear bombs, certainly presents an unparalleled vision of hell. At its worst, Pluto symbolizes the abuse of power, hellish experiences, and the threat of death, either physically or to a sense of self. In mythology we learn that Hades donned the helmet of invisibility when leaving the underworld. Thus Pluto also speaks of that which is invisible or absent.

All, it seems, is not happy in the sky, but luckily they've both been officially categorised only as 'dwarf planets'. So that's all right then.

I think I'm safe from accusations of self-interest as even I can see that this blog is really more of a scrapbook in which I can keep ideas, quotes, websites that interest me rather than a potential bestseller, but I'm really interested in the concept behind the Friday Project. For any of us who blog, or spend any time on the internet, surely there's no argument that much of what we read online is just as good, if not better, in terms of humour/honesty/information than to be found in books. So this publishing company is the first I've seen which is focused on capturing the raw talent on the internet. OK, I will admit some self-interest here, because it was through a short story on East of the Web that I was discovered. About two weeks after it was first published on the site, I received emails from two agents and a publisher asking about my work. It was as unexpected as it was beautiful. I hate the thought that people will start writing blogs or putting work up on the internet just to get a publishing deal, but I do like the fact that some of the absolute passion for writing and communication I see every day might just be rewarded.

Another site that facilitates publication through the internet is The Front List, which invites writers to submit work for peer critiquing. Nothing new in that, maybe, and there is a charge for receiving critiques, but at least one senior editor has committed to reading the best manuscripts which can't be bad.

By the way, one of those involved in the Friday Project is Scott Pack, former buyer at Waterstones and so often called 'the most powerful man in publishing', it must be true. Mustn't it? Anyway I've been following his blog with interest for some time, partly to find out what's going on in my industry, but also because I've discovered some fantastic new books and authors through him - and what's not to love about that? Childish too, I know, but his recent comment: 'Available from all good booksellers, and some crap ones too' made me laugh so much - it's what everyone tags on to that line, surely, but doesn't normally say out loud. Let's say more things out loud - make the world a more contentious place.



And my writing prompt for today is going to be a personal one: dressing up as a superhero to persuade someone not to leave (... eh? probably not what you think!)

For my first touring 'girlfriend', I'm very pleased to welcome Melanie Lynne Hauser to this blog. Melanie's book, Confessions of Supermom is one of a series she's writing, and has already been chosen as a Literary Guild November Selection. It's been described by no less than Publishers Weekly as:

"Like its title character, this debut novel has a secret identity...it's unexpectedly poignant and packs an emotional punch despite the cheery veneer... at the heart of this story is a narrative about a lonely, wronged woman who just wants to do right by her children and stand up to an uncontrollable world. Hauser slips in soliloquies on motherhood and womanhood that, though brief, are moving, showing us Birdie Lee's heart and in that, the wishes and dreams of super moms everywhere. "

Resisting the urge to find out more about Supermom's cleaning tips and what exactly the stubborn Stain of Unusual Origin was that her heroine found on her bathroom floor (the removal of which gave her superpowers), I asked Melanie instead a couple of writing-based questions to find out what makes her write, or not!

Do you have a favourite writing prompt, or exercise, to share?
I've never done any kind of writing exercises, actually. But a couple of tips that help me in my day-to-day writing: 1) Don't set daily word count goals; I never tell myself I have to write X amount of words every day. I just tell myself I have to write something every day. 2) Leave in the middle of something. I don't stop writing for the day at the end of a scene or chapter; I always make myself start the next section, even if it's just a couple of sentences, so when I start the next day I've already begun, which is always so daunting.

What's your best (or worst!) writing distraction?
The Internet, definitely! There's so much to see and do; while I'm grateful beyond words at the invention of the PC, because I would never have the fortitude to do this writing longhand, I curse the invention of the Internet. How's a poor writer supposed to get any work done???

So thanks to Melanie, aka Superwriter, (and also by the way, the invention of the internet and her blog for introducing me to her and her work) my writing prompt for today is going to be to start mid-sentence, and end mid-sentence...

Anyone in London on Monday 25th September is in for a treat with the New Voices evening of poetry reading at the Troubadour venue. A biaised plug here, as two of the readers - Ann and Carol - are in my fortnightly writing group, but I can vouch for their originality and talent.

"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before."

Willa Cather

Pulp takes the theme of war in its issue this month, and is well worth a look, particularly the story by Sarajevo author Nenad Velickovic, A Hypothalmus Knight.