On a sudden whim while killing some time in one of those mammoth bookshops earlier this week, I picked up a copy of The Zen Of Writing.

A sneak peek into the book and a peculiar hunch started hissing, "Pick it up, PICK IT UP!"

I did.

Read the first chapter before sitting down to do my writing today.

It was like a cool, tart drink followed by a calm voice telling me that my hallucinations were completely normal. That the words weren't against me. That choosing to write full-time was the best of choices... poverty-struck though they be.

And then that familiar pull of creative adrenaline... and a lessening inclination to throw my laptop through the largest pane of glass in my sight.

So if anyone actually reads this, just tell Mr. Bradbury that he restored another writer's sanity... even temporarily.

A small book that delivered a big kick in my ass. Cheers.

Welcome aboard to the board, Aardog!

A very good book indeed. I picked it up as well in a crucial period of my writing career.

Here's another good book for writers:

'The Idiot's Guide to Getting Published' by Jennifer Basye Sander and Sheree Bykovsky.

Sander is a 'book packager' with more than 20 published books of her own. (Book packager: takes your bare manuscript and makes it into a nice book..)
Bykovsky owns a successful NY literary agency.
The Foreword is written by crime author Ann Rule.

This book is an illustrated blue-collar guide to getting past the slush pile, and really works. I highly recommend it.
It isn't in its sixth edition for nothing...

You can find it on a simple search at Amazon.