I've mixed feelings about social networking sites - they can waste a lot of time, yet for a writer they are attractive. When much of your working life is spent alone, staring at a screen or scribbling edits on sheets of paper, there's something reassuring about being able to contact a wider network at the click of a mouse. I mostly use networks specific to my activities - two for writers ( Litopia and Bloggers With Book Deals ) and one for science types ( Nature Network ). Just like the watercooler moment in a normal workplace, these naturally bring together people with work in common, who can moan to each other about the latest problem, as well as discuss last night's hot TV. But I do also have a Facebook page, which I use less often, but like for its immediacy and the way it puts me back in touch with old friends and colleagues. Yesterday I clicked on the 'people you might know' link in Facebook, and amongst the people with obvious links and those I've never h

Being a writer is a strange business. You spend ages producing a manuscript, send it off to the publisher, and then for up to a year you only get tiny glimpses of the gestation process before the actual book drops onto your doorstep in the post. The other day I accidentally pulled up the listing of my next book Ecologic on Amazon, seeing the front cover for the first time. At least, almost the front cover, which is why I hadn't seen it before. We were still working on the subtitle (now finalized) - and my editor was sensibly waiting until they had a version with the correct title on before showing it to me. However, whoever supplies images to Amazon clearly was less patient, so I was able to see what you see here in all its glory. I love it. All we've got to do now (apart from getting the image changed on Amazon to the real version) is work out how to spell the title. I originally called it Eco-logic , but I prefer the way it looks on that image. Trouble is, Amazon has it liste

I appeared last night as a guest on the Litopia after Dark podcast, a weekly chat show on writing and writers hosted by (my) literary agent, Peter Cox of the Redhammer agency. Featuring Peter, regulars Donna Ballman and Dave Bartram, and with children's writer Amanda Lees and myself as guests on this particular show, it's a mix of serious discussion and fun book-based games. Apparently it's listened to by 12,000 to 15,000 people (numbers doubling every quarter). We had a great time - there were some technical glitches (I particularly liked when Peter had to re-record an intro along the lines of 'it may all go disastrously wrong but it hasn't yet') and at least two of us were well medicated for heavy colds, but we all had fun. It's difficult to be clear about numbers listening - they're based on downloads/streaming numbers, but of course plenty of copies could be downloaded without ever being listened to. Even so, it suggests there are a fair number of p

I've never had the need to write fiction set in the US - but if I ever do, it will be with trepidation, because handling alien English is a lot harder than it looks. I have written non-fiction for a US market, and even there it's easy to get tripped up. It's not the obvious stuff - colour or color, and writing 'a purse' instead of 'a handbag' - it's the subtle cultural use of words and objects. I have been caught out, for instance, when describing action at a distance, saying it's a bit like a coconut shy. Luckily, my American editor picked out this non-translating term. One of my favourite crime writers is Elizabeth George. Her Inspector Lynley books are very well written - but I can't help spotting cultural misfits. I'm yet to read one where something hasn't slipped through. One that happens time and again is that she has people writing on yellow legal pads, unheard of in the UK. What triggered all this was last night's epis

Stuck in Swindon for an hour, I made my usual venture into a bookshop - in this case Waterstones. As always, this brought on mixed feelings. There was the genuine pleasure of being amongst so many books, tempered by the sadness that there were few of my own books in sight. (Borders in Swindon always has a much better selection.) I don't know why it is, but the local bookshops seem to have a positive dislike of authors. Every time I've had a book out I have written to them, and despite stocking my books, they've never bothered to respond, even with an email or call. Contrast this with the excellent branch of Waterstones at the Science Museum in London, who really make an author feel at home. It's a shame.

I was invited to speak last Sunday at the Surrey Explorers, a National Association of Gifted Children group based in Kingston-upon-Thames. I have to admit that beforehand I was a touch worried that they would all be precious kids and pushy parents - but the reality was very different. They proved very receptive to both my talk on light for the children and a talk/discussion on global warming and the media afterwards with adults. There were excellent questions, a good discussion and a very friendly atmosphere. So apologies for my preconceptions. It was a great Sunday morning.

Kicking off my new blog here (I used to blog at Nature Network *) with a provocation. I know for lots of people writing is a hobby - and a great one. But there are some of us, and I'm one, for whom writing is more a way of life. I can't not write. This is particularly frustrating when, as is currently the case, I'm between books. My latest, Upgrade Me has just been published - my next two books (more on these later) are with the respective editors, and now I'm looking for new directions. It's an unnerving state. A lot of waiting, a lot of thinking. * Added later: now defunct, this innovation from Nature introduced a fair number of scientists and science writers to blogging, some of whom ended up at Occam's Typewriter .