December 2005 - Writers Magazine

News Review

• Author of six unpublished novels Sarah Wray has hit the jackpot by winning the WOW competition. Her book, The Forbidden Room, sounds a bit of an unlikely winner, but perhaps that’s precisely why it beat off the opposition. News Review investigates.
• The Waterstone’s bid for Ottakar’s has been referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading.  News Review looks at this surprising turn of events.
• News Review looks at deep discounting in the high street, and layoffs and cuts in publishers' output in the run-up to Christmas.
• 'Recent events at the Crime Writers Association read a bit like the plot of a conspiracy thriller but behind it all may lurk no more than a preference to support British – or at least English language - talent.' News Review investigates.
• Irish writers' tax exemption is under threat.  But is it justified for writers and other artists to escape paying taxes, so they are subsidised by everyone else?  News Review looks at the issues.

Comment

• 'I don't begin a book until I have an idea that really excites me.  I open my imagination and wait for it to come.  Up till now, it always has.   But I never get a new idea when I'm writing.          P D James
• 'Huge financial investments are staked on the gut feelings of one or two people who sometimes get it right but more often get it wrong... sooner or later, the money men will demand a better strike rate, which will trigger a rush to understand what consumers really want from their reading.'  Damian Horner in the Bookseller
• 'I think they're just considered too subversive.  But it's a very conservative climate there now and children's books are invested with great power; there's this idea the child might copy something.'   Francesca Simon, American author of the Horrid Henry series, on why her books have been published in 20 countries but not in the States, in the Observer.
• ‘Supporting young people as they find their creative voice is an inspiring business. All of us - writers, teachers, and project co-ordinators - are thrilled by the sheer adventure of it.  Mandy Coe and Jean Sprackland in the foreword to their book Our thoughts are Bees: Writers Working with Schools

Writers' Quote

• 'i never think at all when i write nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.'            Don Marquis

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