This is good advice. At least, my instincts tell me it’s good advice. Writing and publishing are so very subjective that we need a life-saver of instinct to cling to, or else we’d flounder around in a sea of conflicting ideas. Well, more than we already do.

The thing is, I don’t really know if it’s completely true. Personally, sometimes my instincts are spot-on. And sometimes, they really really suck.

My instincts, for example, tell me that everything I write will be loads better with at least one penis joke in it. This is so self-evidently not true that I can’t help but regard my instincts with suspicion.

I’ve submitted at least three books that I actively hated when I pressed ‘send’…and every one of those three books has been called ‘your best yet’ by my editor at the time.* On the other hand, when I sent in my last book I absolutely loved every word of it…and my editor (quite rightly) gave me huge revisions.

Several times, I’ve come up with what I think is an absolutely brilliant idea for a story, only to have it shot down in flames by my agent. But then another idea is okay. Why? Why? For the love of God, why?!!?

My instincts do not tell me. They are too busy partying with the penis jokes.

On the other hand, I usually know instinctively when there’s something wrong with a scene or a plotline a conflict or a character, even if I can’t figure out why. It gets all tangled up and it doesn’t work.

Except, of course, when it does seem to work, and I totally love it, and only discover later on that it doesn’t.

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell says that truly effective instinctive people have trained themselves with knowledge and experience, so that their split-second decisions are often the most accurate. After eight years as a published author, I’d like to think that’s true; that my instincts are informed by what I’ve learned. But sometimes, I can’t help but think that while you should trust your instincts, you shouldn’t trust them too much. You should look around for knowledge and experience too. For good reasons to fall back on. Maybe this is why I’m an analytical writer as well as an impulsive one; I like to know why something feels right.

I’ve had a really good couple of writing weeks, and I really like what I’ve produced. I think it does exactly what I wanted it to do; I think it’s challenging me while playing to my strengths, and I am in love with the characters**. I feel that way, of course, until it comes time to let it out into the world. Then my instincts run off to party again.

What are your thoughts about your instincts?

*I like those books a lot better now, with distance. And no, I’m not going to say which ones they were.

**It doesn’t include any penis jokes, though. I wonder if maybe I should put some in?

But I’m back! With a puffin!

Happy new year everyone. A little bit late.

Now last year this whole car-shaped cake thing didn’t turn out so well, so I had more than a little bit of trepidation. Nevertheless, as soon as I’d dropped Fecklet off at school this morning, I turned on Desert Island Discs and got baking.

Fecklet wanted a chocolate cake, but once I started measuring out, I realised we were nearly out of cocoa. So off I went, into the sleet, to find it. The first shop I went to didn’t have any, so I went to three other shops to find it. Three. None of them had cocoa. They had rose petals, they had kielbasa, they had Your Tattoo Magazine, but the basic ingredients for making a chocolate cake? Nah. Finally I went back to the first shop to get some dark chocolate to melt, and there, on the shelf: cocoa! Lots of it! Bourneville!

Either I missed it first time, or there was a magic cocoa fairy following me around.

So: to work. Last year, I followed the instructions on the bottle of Special Cake Release Fluid: brush lightly onto the tin; no flour or baking parchment needed. That didn’t work and the cake was a broken mess that had to be glued together with chocolate buttercream. So this year, I brushed that stuff on about half an inch thick, added baking parchment to the very bottom, and layered some flour on top of it for luck.

The car-shaped tin is shaped weirdly so the ends cook quickly and the middle never does. Despite my judicious use of tinfoil and baking powder, the cake burned on top, and wasn’t tall enough.

I was also quite frightened that it wouldn’t come out of the tin. But it did. Lesson learned: if you don’t want your cake to stick, use LOTS AND LOTS OF GREASE.

My friend Elizabeth came over for a visit in the afternoon and she offered invaluable assistance as to icing colours and distracting conversation, along with making the Earl Grey. She also advised me to prop the cake up on half a takeaway container from Wok On Wheels so I could use Oreos to make the tyres. Several batches of buttercream later, here’s what I came up with:

Here is a closeup of the Oreo wheels and the spoiler, which I made with bits of cut-off cake (Fecklet is very keen on spoilers):

And finally, here is my kitchen at the end.

All in all, I’m having a pretty good week, having sold a short story and a novella…and it’s only Thursday! I’m also pimping myself a bit around the web, and in real life:

There’s a 75-word paragraph from my story ‘The Black Sheep’ on Paragraph Planet (it’s archived now, alas, but it was there!), and also an interview with me there.

My recipe for cranberry nut bread, and a giveaway of Getting Away With It, are on Chick Lit Central.

On Saturday 10th December, I’ll be signing copies of my books at the Local Author Fair at Reading Central Library, Abbey Square, Reading. The fair runs from 10 til 4 but I will probably only be there till 1.30 or so. I’ll have copies of my new hardback, The Summer of Living Dangerously, and also pretty much my entire backlist for sale, including my Mills & Boon stuff. There are lots of authors there so it’s a great place to pick up Christmas gifts.

On Sunday 11th December, I’ll be signing my books again, this time at Windsor Waterstones, on Peascod Street in Windsor. They’ll have my latest hardback, The Summer of Living Dangerously, plus Getting Away With It, Girl from Mars, and some of my others. That’ll be from around 11ish till 4ish.

I’ve done some little drawings for Christmas cards to give away at the signings, with the web address of my free Christmas read, ‘The Black Sheep’. I think he’s sort of cute. Though not as surprisingly delicious as a cheese string.

Click on his cute little miserable face to read the story.

Well, it’s pretty much bliss.

For me, the day started with lugging a suitcase of books and historical costume from Reading to London, and then doing a quick change in the thankfully large and generously be-mirrored ladies’ room at the Royal Overseas League. Several of us were there helping each other button up and doing each other’s hair, including the lovely Christina Courtenay who, believe it or not, made her dress herself. This is Christina and me with Henriette Gyland, who was attired as a very handsome gentleman for the day.

I think it looks like she's pinching our bums. Shameless rake!

I chaired a panel with Nicola Cornick, Juliet Archer, and Beth Elliott to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense & Sensibility. Nicola knows a huge amount about the period and was able to offer some interesting links between Willoughby in the novel and the Earl of Craven. Juliet writes modern versions of Jane Austen’s novels and so she had some things to say about the characters and how they translated into modern sensibilities. And Beth traced the philosophical influences on the creation of two heroines, Elinor and Marianne.

In my research I was quite tickled to find that Austen had been rejected (for an early version of Pride and Prejudice) and she funded the publication of Sense & Sensibility, her first novel in print, herself. It was a success (selling out its first print run of 750 copies!) and was published anonymously, as “A Lady”.

The story goes that when Jane and her niece, Anna, saw the book in a circulating library, Anna commented that it must be rubbish with a title like that.

Modern romance writers can identify with all of this, I think!

It was a treat for me to dissect the text a little bit and to revel in its glorious structure. I love the way that Elinor and Marianne’s stories are nearly identical and how Austen deftly manipulates the similarities and differences to create irony and heighten the pacing.

Next, we heard Jennifer Kloester talking about her new biography of Georgette Heyer. I knew hardly anything about Heyer’s life so I was amazed to hear what a deft novelist she was, writing incredibly quickly—but also how she was plagued by self-doubt about her writing.

There were sessions on Georgian scents and what sounds like a hugely interesting session on Georgian sex, but I chose the active pursuits of Regency dancing and going for a Regency walk. Our guide Louise Allen was knowledgeable and fascinating (and the soldier kept on saluting passers-by!).

Outside the private London Library in St James's Square

There was a Waterloo tea featuring readings and cake, but I stayed at the Royal Overseas league to play Hazard (I’m rubbish at it), and the day was rounded off by a panel discussion about Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, by author Jenny Haddon, Ebury Fiction Editor Gillian Green, Jennifer Kloester, historical author Joanna Fulford, Roy McMillan, producer at Naxos Audiobooks.

There are more photos on Liz Fenwick’s blog, but I will leave you with a photo of me gazing adoringly at Beau Brummel, whilst he gazes stonily into the distance.

Most inappropriate behaviour.

PS…If you’re in the area, I’m giving a talk at Wokingham Library at 8 pm on Thursday 20th October. Wokingham Library’s events are always lovely, so please come!

It’s a Regency romance fan’s dream come true.

I’m dressing up, of course; I can’t sew, like the intrepid Christina Courtenay, so I’ve borrowed my long-suffering friend Ruth’s red bridesmaid dress again, and I’ve got a shawl to go with it. I’ll have to do something about my hair (Jan Jones is also worried about this problem) and the ostrich plume I wore the last time I dressed Regency is distinctively worse for wear, from sweeping under the arms of dancing gentlemen during the Duke of Kent’s Waltz.

Unlike the last time I wore the outfit, I will have several like-minded women to help do my dress up in the back, so I won’t have to ask some random cider-drinking smokers to help me. Which is a relief.

I’m also chairing a talk, with the brilliant Juliet Archer, Nicola Cornick, and Beth Elliott, on Sense & Sensibility, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. In preparation, I’ve been rereading the book and also watching the film (what a hardship).

It’s going to be a fabulous day and I’m really looking forward to it.

Your book is your precious thing, your creation. But at book signings, sometimes you can feel as if you’re selling soap powder.

This is why, in general, I prefer to do author events, where I get to talk to readers who have bothered to specifically show up. It’s less, then, as if I’m selling soap powder and more as if I’m having a nice chat.

You have to get hyped up for a book signing. On Friday night, I went to a Jamie Oliver party at my friend’s house and oohed and ahhed over all the lovely and largely unnecessary cooking items whilst drinking wine, and then I was somehow persuaded to go to the Purple Turtle. If you live in Reading, you know that the Purple Turtle is a late-night drinking establishment which has a reputation for being loud and chaotic. I’m no stranger to the Turtle—I actually met my husband at the previous Turtle, which was in a now-demolished building—but I haven’t been there for years and I felt distinctly like The Old Person In The Room.

In fact, a young whippersnapper of about 20 approached us and asked us random questions, clearly as a dare to “go talk to that old lady over there.”

Anyway, this is all a long-winded way of saying that I was slightly worse for wear for my book signing in Windsor on Saturday. Fortunately, the staff at Windsor Waterstones are great. They had everything set up and the manager, Carol, is a whirlwind of bookselling goodness who knows her customers personally, and does a lot of events.

I had chocolate. I was prepared to approach customers, put a copy of my book in their hands, tell them I was signing copies if they were interested, and walk away. I was happy to accost people who were holding books that I love, and have a little chat about the book and recommend others—including, sometimes, mine. I talked to several young people who love to write stories. I gave out my card to readers, even if they didn’t feel like buying a book right now. I gave chocolate to smiling children and their parents.

I also answered queries about where the toilets were, and whether there were any lifts. I fielded questions such as “Where’s that book that has Sarah Jessica Parker in the movie?” (the woman didn’t believe me when I showed her because it didn’t have SJP on the cover) and “Where’s Katie Price’s latest novel?” I gave away chocolate to children who didn’t even thank me (!!) and whose parents didn’t even glance at my book (!!!). I smiled as graciously as I could manage when a very nice couple said, “I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard of you” and when an otherwise charming man said, “So how many of these do you sell, anyway?”

I got to sign a book for a woman who was buying it as a little gift to bring to her boyfriend’s mother when they visited her to tell her they were engaged. (“To Sarah’s future mother-in-law,” I wrote.) I signed one for a husband who was buying a stack of books for his pregnant wife to read before their baby came. I signed one for a mum who was cross with her daughter right now, but was keeping it for a present later on. I signed two copies of Girl from Mars for two girls who looked like exactly the sort of beautiful misfits I wrote about in the book.

So…not like selling soap powder. Not really, at all.

Fecklet has started school full time, which is a good thing for both of us. He’s loving it, and I really need the time to catch up on work. On Tuesdays he stays late at school to do Lego Club. He mostly wanted to do Lego Club so he could destroy the things he made.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to pick out shoes to wear to my book signing at Waterstones in Windsor this Saturday. There’s a pair of fake crocodile brogues which are quite possibly the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. But I’m trying to resist. Also, my friend Michelle is having a Jamie Oliver party at her house the night before and though I have good intentions, I fear that I’ll end up drinking like seven bottles of wine and then spend my shoe money on tea towels and storage canisters.

Anyway, if you’re in the area, come to Windsor Waterstones on the afternoon of Saturday the 24th September. You can buy a book if you want, but you can also just taunt me for being hungover.

I will have chocolate.

This event will be a celebration of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and the books they have influenced. It coincides with the launch of a new biography of Georgette Heyer, written by Dr Jennifer Kloester, and 2011 also happens to be the bi-centenary of the publication of Jane Austen’s “Sense & Sensibility” – both perfect excuses for a Regency themed day!

• Georgette Heyer, Her Life and Writing – Talk by Dr Jennifer Kloester
• Sense & Sensibility: The Things You Didn’t Know – Panel discussion by Amanda Grange, Juliet Archer, Nicola Cornick and Julie Cohen
• Austen & Heyer – Were they better than they thought they were? Panel discussion
• The Celestial Bed: Sex and the Georgians – Talk and panel discussion
• Regency Scents: Odours and Malodours – Louise Allen and Christina Courtenay “sniff-and-tell”
• Regency Clothing – Jane Walton demonstrates the fashions of the day
• Regency Dancing – Mr and Mrs Ellis Rogers take us through the steps
• Parlour Games – Learn how to play Whist, Piquet, Vingt et Un or Loo
• Regency Walk – Guided tour of St James’s
• Afternoon Tea, with the chance to attend a special Waterloo Tea

To book, please visit the RNA website, or you can visit the event page on Facebook. You can also follow @RNARegencyDay on Twitter.

I’ll be there, speaking about Sense & Sensibility, promoting The Summer of Living Dangerously, and perhaps dressed like this…