In spurts. Sometimes I sit down and once I get started I can be writing away for several hours. I don't know where the time has gone. Otherwise there are large gaps between sitting down and getting words on the page, but I don't see this as wasted time - I'm rehearsing scenes and plotlines in my head. When an idea comes to me I always make a note of it. I also use a lot of timeline diagrams - an arrow running from left to right where I plot what is a happening and when. When I sit down at the keyboard I refer to the notes and timelines and then I just flow - I don't edit as I go along so I tend to overwrite, but it is easier strip back a draft then to add to it. After multiple revisions I then have a working draft - its a process of iteration.

There will be always be someone with whom the book doesn't resonate - and that's just fine because if someone writes a good negative review there should be something useful in there that your friends won't tell you. I take it as a learning process and I don't get hung up on it.

Comma's. I must, use less, of them,

I wanted to write something that would amuse me but which also had an underlying serious theme. A thriller with added humour. I remember several years ago in the UK that various celebrities from ex-olympic athletes to pop stars were all reinventing themselves as garden designers. I thought if that was the case why couldn't a gardener get caught up in a web of intrigue and be reinvented as a secret agent? The lightbulb moment came when I was watching North by NorthWest - a great Hitchcock film. I don't know much about gardening and I'm not a spy - so what could possibly go wrong with a book about a gardener caught up in world threatening plot?

It was about a week ago and in a moment of idle curiosity I googled my book and found that it had been featured on a website for lousy book covers. I've decided to wear that as a perverse badge of pride - anything that draws attention to the book is a positive. I obviously have a talent for bad book covers - maybe I could make it part of a brand? Interesting times.