A handy new URL has now been set for the Bateman New Zealand Writer’s Handbook on Facebook - www.facebook.com/writershandbook - and I’m posting interesting writing news and competitions on the page for Kiwi writerly folk who might be interested. ‘Like’ us now on Facebook!

Spanish bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who has recently published The Prisoner of Heaven, has made an interesting comment about writing in an interview for The Listener:

“It’s hard work, writing … Honestly, a fight every day against your own limitations. You have to squeeze books out of your brain, you’re constantly trying to solve challenges. I think most writers enjoy the feeling of having written something, rather than the process of writing it.”

I would add that the process itself is the fascinating part of writing – seeing what pops out of the ether or from one’s muddled brain. Gems, as well as dross …

And here’s a slight problem – even though I have written several novels over the years, the starting process usually eludes me. How exactly did I start my last novel??

Maybe it came to me, fully formed, in a dream? Nooo.

Thankfully, I kept some of my old notes. And there, in all its glory (not) is a rather befuddled brainstorming process on bits of paper that, over time (and undoubtedly much pulling out of hair) eventually morphed into the novel I ended up writing last year.

Phew, thank goodness I kept those notes. So this morning I’ve just come up with version #1 of the next novel. This is such an embryonic phase that I thought it was worth sharing. There may be some of you out there who have had a gem of a novel idea present itself in a flash of lightning, and if so, I’d love to hear from you. Though I suspect the reality is more similar to my own laborious process.

Recently I was interviewed for the NZ flash fiction website. Here’s the site for anybody who’s interested: http://flash-frontier.com/2013/01/25/interview-with-tina-shaw/

In these straitened publishing times, as a friend tells me, it’s more important than ever to write what we like and be damned. People do like distinctiveness and specificity.

So true. And I remind myself that heaps of people love reading (print books) – look at all the book groups around the country – the Book Discussion Scheme (WEA) now has 1000 book groups they cater for. That love of reading is never going to go away.

Recent news is that Penguin and Random House will be merging … the problem is that there will be less places for writers to send our mss. I’ve just heard of a writer who has had her novel ms turned down by RH so now she will have to try Penguin or HarperCollins next – once the two biggies merge, that writer will have one less publisher to send her work. Yet I like to think that small niche publishers will spring up, phoenix-like, from the ashes. The print book will survive (in one form or another). Tho the current market is still worrying for writers … and booksellers.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about recently is that there are lots of lovely writers who are falling into obscurity because they can’t get published any more … which means that there will be less choice of local fiction available to readers. There ought to be a co-op for us neglected writers to keep our work alive – The Lost Cause Writers Society!