A challenge and two gifts

Welcome to my first-ever blog entry. I thought I might tell you how I started writing novels.

We were having coffee in our conservatory some years ago; Philip and I and our friends Jamie and Ann Selkirk. Jamie had been best man at our wedding because he was Philip's flatmate in the dim distant past. Then, with great foresight, he went into partnership with Peter Jackson. Yes, that Peter Jackson. When this conversation took place they were in the early stages of shooting the Rings trilogy. (He eventually got an Oscar for editing them.)

I'd always written - mostly advertising. I'd always wanted to write something a lot longer. So, after chatting about how the films were progressing, I said 'I really want to write a book'. Instead of soothing platitudes about how good he was sure I'd be if I ever got around to it, Jamie challenged me outright. "Do it !" he said. "Don't just think about it. Do it. If Peter and Fran hadn't had the courage, the movies would never have been started."

Humph! That put me in my place. So there was my challenge.