BOOK LIST No. 2: LIFE, LIFESTYLE, FAMILY & OTHER ISSUES – FICTION & NON-FICTION

[booktalker]

Brilliant! Saffron, will you pm me your contact email? Thanks to everyone who's responded so far...

[Bobby Smith]

Booktalker, if I may be so bold as to offer a word of advice: keep reading other books whilst writing your own! Like you I dropped reading other books when writing mine, and my writing suffered accordingly. My publisher told me that this is a common error. It is good to read how other writers structure their sentences, etc, whilst you develop your own thoughts and ideas.
Good luck with it anyhow. 

[Bobby Smith]

If anyone is interested, Margaret and I are appearing at the North London Reading Group event - Bookstock - on 31/07/10. It takes place at the Blue Post pub (Oxford Circus) from 7.30pm. 5 other authors will also be strutting their stuff. The North London Reading Group have their own website with more details. If anyone from Mix Together turns up please introduce yourself to us, as we'll be glad to meet you.   

[saffron]

Waooh....Thats great stuff Bobby....Wuld love to have done this...but its London...there are others on here who may come and greet you..

Thankyou fro your support for MT...

Youll be pleased to know Im strutting my stuff...

[booktalker]

Hi Bobby - I hope your advice isn't too late! Mind you, I spent 12 years reading in preparation for this one... I'm sure I use a different part of my brain when writing, and the reading bit switches off. Would love to have been able to come to the reading group. (All advice very welcome!) Bx

[Bobby Smith]

The best advice I can give is to have discipline when writing. Make sure you get into a routine of writing for 3-4 hours per day, at the same time. Your brain will then be sub-consciously 'tuned in' to write with little or no stimulation. Although a glass of cider also helps!!
 

[booktalker]

Has anyone read The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka? (Has come highly recommended but will have to wait for a while before I get round to it...!).

[Bobby Smith]

I just finished 'Nomad' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali; an impassioned plea for enlightenment to the Muslim mind. A really inspiring woman and a very thought provoking read. 

[booktalker]

OMG - The Da Vinci Code. Has anyone read it? What did you think? I refused to read it before, because I was being 'sniffy' about it, but one of the agents I met said it was worth reading just to understand how Dan Brown's structured it and achieved the success he has, so I started it last night.....and couldn't put it down! Grrrr.