When People Begin To Talk About "our

Busyness, I Feel Increasingly, Is The Writer's Curse And Downfall. You Read Too Much And Write Too Readily, You Become Cut Off From Your Inner Life, From The Flow Of Your Own Thoughts, And Turned Far Too Much Towards The Outside World.

Florence And Milan Had Given Him Ideas More Flexible Than Those Of People Who'd Stayed At Home.

So Many Years Of Preparation, For What Was Called Adult Life: Was It For This?

Read Becoming A Writer By Dorothea Brande. Then Do What It Says, Including The Tasks You Think Are Impossible. You Will Particularly Hate The Advice To Write First Thing In The Morning, But If You Can Manage It, It Might Well Be The Best Thing You Ever Do For Yourself. This Book Is About Becoming A Writer From The Inside Out. Many Later Advice Manuals Derive From It. You Don't ­really Need Any Others, Though If You Want To Boost Your Confidence, "how To" Books Seldom Do Any Harm. You Can Kick-start A Whole Book With Some Little Writing Exercise.

My First Book Was A Historical Novel. I Started Writing In 1974. In Those Days, Historical Novels Meant Ladies With Swelling Bosoms On The Cover. Basically, It Meant Historical Romance. It Was Not Respectable As A Genre.