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The cover quote that made a bestseller

Sue Limb’s first novel, Up the Garden Path, had just one big – and rather unfair – advantage when it hit the bookshops in 1984. It sported a front cover blurb provided by her Cambridge University friend, Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

And it was, quite simply, the most compelling cover quote ever.

‘Wonderfully funny,’ Adams had written. ‘The sort of book that makes you want to sleep with the author.’

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Tackling the Dreaded Block

Writer’s block can have a devastating effect on those of us who write for a career, and those who write for pleasure, finding it a release from the daily grind of modern life. Like many of us, I have several stories gestating in my head at any given moment, so selecting a character from the many chatting amongst themselves, awaiting selection, should see to it that I’m never short of inspiration – right? Well, not really. At least, not all of the time, for there are occasions when creative motivation withers … when the river runs dry and there’s nothing among the debris left behind that stirs my imagination into producing anything other than a few scraps of material that rarely fit the bill.

If you’re currently suffering the same fate, please don’t think that you’re alone, for virtually every writer – professionally or otherwise – who I’ve spoken to about this has experienced the soul-crushing reality of being unable to find the right words from the uninspiring rubble on offer at that time. We sit behind the wheel of that bloody car we thought we knew so well, but it suddenly feels alien to us, and when turning the ignition, it splutters into some sort of action, only to stall moments later, stubbornly refusing to burst into life and take us to where we want to go. And it may continue to sit in the driveway for far longer than we could possibly have imagined.

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When a frustration becomes a solution

Everyone has their ‘thing’.

It’s that frustration when you know how something should be done, but you see people doing it wrong. Why don’t they get it? What’s stopping them from understanding where they’re going off track?

When I worked in marketing many years ago, my bugbear used to be seeing businesses advertising the things their customers didn’t really care about, and neglecting what they did. My husband grew used to me muttering to myself as we walked past our corner cafe. This had a sign outside pronouncing their ‘hot and cold food’ offering, rather than their friendly service and delicious pies. 

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