Gautami has tagged me for this meme. As I haven’™t written a book this is difficult. If I were to write one, thinking optimistically, it would:

1.be historical fiction
2.be romantic
3.have a mystery to be solved
4.be philosophical
5.mythical
6.and mystical
7.focusing on the power of memories
8.and the intricacies of the mind
9.be well researched
10.and be a bestseller.

The only publication to my name (well my maiden name) is a bibliography on the ‘˜Massacre’™ of ‘˜Peterloo in 1819’™ that I compiled and was published by the library where I used to work. So more realistically my book would be:

1.non-fiction
2.well researched
3.structured and methodical
4.based on facts, not on assumptions
5.detailed, but clear and concise
6.analytical
7.referenced with footnotes, not endnotes.
8.It would have an extensive bibliography
9.and an index.
10.It would be a bestseller ‘“ I wish!

Gautami, you have no idea how long this has taken me, or how much thought has gone into this post. It has been a pipe-dream of mine to write a book. I have bought and borrowed many books on writing and nothing has come from my pen, or more recently my computer, that in any way, shape or form resembles a book! I’™m an expert at reading how to write fiction, but faced with doing any of those exercises they say will help to write a novel I dry up completely. It’™s like putting me in a group of people and being asked to name five interesting things about yourself that nobody could guess from looking at you. Or dividing up into little groups to discuss something and then reporting back to the big group – my mind goes blank immediately.

So at the end of all this I know that the book I would like to write is buried deep within me but will probably stay there, well hidden, too shy to come out. But on the other hand if it starts out on this computer, it may just begin to relax and make itself known ‘¦

I’™m supposed to tag another five people now. Stuckinabook, A Work In Progress, So Many Books, Of Books and Bicycles and In Spring It is the Dawn, I’™d love to see what you would write, so I’™m tagging you. Please let me know how you get on.