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I hesitate to say this, but I recommend Escaping Reality by Geoff Nelder - see link below. I know others will now say I am advertising so maybe you had better not get it. I would also say that some publishers said it didn't have enough thrills and is too humorous for a thriller. So it is a...

I agree completely with Ruby on the Pelzer stories - you would have enough material for two dissertations there! I'm tempted to agree with Stewart on rejecting Haddon's "The curious incident of the dog in the night time" but for different reasons. I have taught AS children, and Haddon...

I met Terry Pratchett - OK it was at a book-reading, but we did chat one-to-one afterwards. He had his traditional big black hat and leather coat on. A friend asked him if he wanted any ideas to take Discworld to more places. Terry replied that he has enough ideas of his own to take him writing...

Hi Steve, I see you are into reading Russian short stories. I have been editing the work of a Russian emigre living in England. Her English is like a new language! She says that Russian is more passionate and deeper than English and this comes across without any deliberate intent on her part...

I exchange many of my books (5,000 at the last census!) with members of my 3d book group. I don't always get them back :( In fact I've had to buy three copies of my favourite, Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer. I have posted a box of books to a friend in the US whose house had burnt down, but it...

Hi Champy and welcome. Everytime I go to the Netherlands, the Dutch seem to speak all the European languages! Don't worry about your English, it's probably better than most people over here. Geoff

Hi ArJohn, Congrats on your success. I find that belonging to a readers' group (both on the web and in 3D) is very helpful to my writing too. I too have a thriller out there - only just released this summer, in fact the copies haven't come from the printers yet - hopefully it will do as...

Atlanta Nights has to be the worst book cos it was designed to be. Compulsive reading all the same. Battlefield Earth by Ron Hubbard has to be one of the worst that wasn't supposed to be. Geoff

I am soooo :o But I can take it. Very funny Sir Myk! Geoff - I'm keeping my siggie though.

You are right, Stewart. Many of those were created by using "wizards" allowing users to add such features at a click of a button. Rather like when someone new to DeskTop Publishing discover fonts and before long produce a pageful of writing that looks like a ransom note! Geoff

”Hazneen's sister (Haseena) writes letters to her from Bangladesh in some sort of pidgin English but both couldn’t speak English and both educated in Bangladesh so why would you write to your sister in English anyway? is she writing in Bangla? then why is her language so poor - one can...

Hi BenStephenFry and welcome - though I am a newbie here too. I spent some time in a school in Offenbach three years ago. I had a wonderful time there. They offered me a job teaching computing science and setting up their school website. I said but I can hardly speak any German! The...

I don't know why it should amaze you. A lot of effort (=time = money) has to go into producing bug-free super wow websites. Maybe people have their priorities into the literary rather than the webbie. On the other hand, I know my website is too simple for most web-aware people these days...

Stewart, WorldCon is THE international conference for SF & F writers, scriptwriters, film makers, yes and readers. It's where the big awards for SF are presented - like the Hugo. The conference is usually in the USA so it is a big coup for Glasgow to have it. see it at...

Hi Wilderness, I'd skoot if I were you, they are all mad in here and it's infectious. Still here? Remember I warned you. Like your avatar of cocoa pops :p Geoff

Hey Stewart, are you going to WorldCon in Glasgow next month? My agent said he'd get me a ticket if I wanted to go. Trouble is I'm at three writerly cons this year and my wife is getting a bit sus that I have a bit. I'm in Edinburgh 4 or 5 times a year... oops you don't want to know that, do...

The Poisonwood Bible is unread on my shelf as is one of Hubbard's. I will get round to them - we need more rainy days. I, too, am in debt to Asimov. If I had to pick one that has influenced me the most - both in thinking and writing - it would have to be Tibor Fischer. His love of words...

I was going to reply to this thread but reading carefully the above comments has made me change my mind. unGeoff

Badlydrawngirl, at least you hadn't asked the author Fay Weldon about Writer's Block. She was the guest speaker at the Annual Writers' Conference in Winchester last month. She said a writer came up to her and said: "Fay, I have reached chapter three and came up against writers' block. What...

Aardvark, there is a market in children's lit for this type of humour SF, so go for it! As an editor, I'm afraid it needs a lot of work. You have too many dialogue tags and where you absolutely need them the speech verb "said" is better (because to readers it is invisible) than all the...