Little things..

Sunday morning, reflective time, and I'm in a thinking way - not actually writing today, but working through some ideas for a new book, a couple of events, and also the week's teaching I'm doing at Swanwick in August.

I was musing on what I actually achieve when I write a book and see it published. There are lots of answers to that; the self satisfaction, the entertaintment I (hopefully) provide for a few folk, even some extra pocket money if you want to be very basic, but the question was nagging - is there anything more significant to it?

One of the most rewarding parts of becoming an author for me is small, but important nonetheless. You'll probably be aware that in the tvdetective books, Dan suffers with depression.  The swamp, he calls it, and I know that's a metaphor that chimes with quite a few people, because they've been good enough to get in touch to tell me.

Depression is far more common than many realise, and it's one of those ailments which shame people; is hard to admit to, even harder to come to terms with and tackle.  It can also strike the most unlikely of folk - I've known highly successful, charming, witty, outgoing and seemingly sorted people, those who should never be tainted, hiding the savage secret.

It's been a great source of pride to me that I've had more than a few emails along the lines of - hey, I suffer that, I know exactly what you mean with the Swamp, you've helped give me the strength to come out and admit it and try to do something about it.

A small something yes, but it means a great deal to this humble scribbler who knows how dark and dense the weight can be, and what a relief it is to have allies in the fight against it.

One final thing to mention here, and it's a book signing next Saturday (25th June) at Waterstone's in Yeovil.  It's my first visit to the store and I'm looking forward to it. If you fancy coming along I'd be delighted to see you; there are more details on the News and Events page - www.thetvdetective.com/news.html