THE DARK KINGDOM

This afternoon is pledged to pushing THE DARK KINGDOM onto another level. There's way too much in my head and far too little on paper. Time to do the hard work. This is the book I reluctantly handed over to the niece's friend, aged fifteen. I'd taken them swimming and we were all having a coffee, tea, fruit juice, with my papers laid out in front of me, when she demanded to read the story. My niece explained that her friend read a minimum of four books a week. I watched with nervous concern as she immersed herself deep into the pages, finished, looked up and asked: "Where's the rest of it?" The rest of it is coming along fine. This is one of the few delights about being a writer - the moment when the story comes into the mind thick and fast. All I have to do is convert the darned mental pictures into words that then recreate my mental movie in a stranger's head.