Anna Jones Buttimore

When my first book was accepted for publication I was told by my very wise editor that publishing was a "hurry up and wait" business, and could be extremely frustrating. And so it has proved to be. It seems that most publishers take up to a year from accepting a manuscript to actually printing and distributing the book, and then it can be another year before the author gets sales figures and royalties. And yet it often seems that the edited manuscript is returned to the author with instructions to make required corrections and alterations and return it within 72 hours. Publishers work to deadlines, and with several books scheduled for specific release dates, and marketing based on everything happening as planned, part of the author's lot in life is to do whatever is necessary to fit in with it all. I can cope with that. I understand that's how it works. That's fine. The more difficult part is waiting for an answer, but again, that's par for the course. My late...

I posted a few weeks ago about why I object to swearing. Essentially it is because I don't like horrible, out-of-context, intended-to-offend words. But there are plenty of other words I love. Words which trip off the tongue and which are a joy to say - tributary, fluffy, coupon. (The Welsh words cynffon and bysedd trump them all, though. Welsh has the most amazingly satisfying words I know.) Some words not only sound good, but have good associations which make them even more spirit-warming, "chocolate" being the obvious candidate. I also love the evocative word "Exogenesis", not only because it has such an exciting and mysterious meaning, but because it is the title of one a symphony by one of my favourite bands (Muse), and the name of an episode of Star Trek. "Epiphany" is another delightful word which is also the name of an episode of three of my favourite TV programmes - Desparate Houswives, Angel and Stargate SG-1. The English language has the rich...