Gardening leave

After months of thinking of nothing but my new novel, I'm having a break. Three writer friends are reading it, and while I wait for their feedback I'm gardening. Just like Sally Howe, I have a passion for sweet peas, and my windowsills are crammed with yoghurt cartons full of compost and sweet pea seeds (just coming up) and I've been trying to dig 4 tons of manure into the garden. (Yes, it may well be the wrong time of year for it, but this is the time I have.)

The other treat is that I can read fiction again. If I read novels when I'm writing it messes up my work. I worry about someone else's style infecting mine, but also, I can only inhabit one fictional world at a time successfully, and if I'm writing, then mine is the one I want to inhabit. I've finally started reading the latest Anne Tyler novel Digging to America, which a friend gave me for Christmas.

Sally Howe is also waiting for feedback ( from her agent) on her latest draft of Fast Work. Check out her blog to see how she's filling her time...