As a relatively new author, with a new website, I have been working on improving my exposure. Accordingly, I have joined the Society of Authors and the Crime Writers Association, both of which offer interesting opportunities to sell more books and to enable me to learn from others more experience than me.  

Both offer monthly publications designed to help writers. They also run meetings where the respective groups  discuss relevant topics. 

The Society of Authors divides itself geographically and have a meeting at the end of the months  The Crime Writers Association has a Festival at the beginning of February where various authors gather to discuss their work, on a similar, but larger basis to the 'Meet the Authors' meeting I attended in Chalfont St Peter in December. Indeed, one of the authors at Chalfont St Peter, Tom Mead, will also be at the festival. This is a more heavyweight meeting than the one in Chalfont St Peter, and one author I would particularly like to meet is Frank Gardner, the BBC's Security Correspondent.

As far as my writing is concerned, not much was done over the Christmas period, but I have now finished Chapter nine of my latest story and I'm looking forward to getting my grey cells working again.