I’ve recently finished my editing of my novel, ‘Missing Targets’ – a political/crime thriller. My first draft was 155,000 words. Now I’m below 112,000 and need input from others. A friend, who is an avid reader and enjoys crime fiction, said he would read it for me. We are supposed to meet some old pals at the pub on Saturday, but he said I could drop the manuscript at his house earlier, if I wanted to be more discrete. He’s right, of course, writing is something done in the shadows – “I write you know”, and wait for the reaction… If you say, “I play golf you know,” it seems so normal, by comparison.

Why does every writer expect to be the next JK Rowling or Ian Rankin? Many people go to recreational art classes, but don’t expect to have their work in the National Gallery . – Again, normal people go to art classes – Writers …?

Of course, I had the last laugh…No one guessed I was smuggling crack semi-colons.