Monday 29 October 2012

No one says a novel has to be one thing.

“No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.”
Ishmael Reed,

So last night I finished reading Barbara and Allan Pease's book The definitive guide to body language. It was well worth the £6.99 or whatever it was on Amazon. Hopefully this will allow me to add a further dimension to my characters with their subtle changes in body language. When you read a book like this it is surprising just how much you are already aware of. The nice thing about this book though is that they tell you why things happen. For example if you touch your nose when you lie- its because the blood vessels in your nose expand or something like that making you want to touch your nose.

Its very good - definitely worth reading. And very comprehensive. It covers everything from the direction your feet point to why women wear lipstick! Very interesting.

I have decided to leave the grammar course until next year and for now concentrate on Under The Coconut Tree and sending out more submissions for The Bittersweet Vine. A bit disappointing it has been about a month and only heard back from two agents! Although someone somewhere did say October was a busy time. Maybe I'll have more luck in November.

I'll leave you as I start reading The Penguin Guide to Punctuation.