Is it simply the post-Christmas torpor or is there some deeper reason why I’m finding it difficult to write this Pangolin? I think it’s the latter, even though I do need some recovery time from a rumbustious and delightful weekend with little grandchildren enjoying a pirate-themed Christmas. I love the mug.

I could tell you that I write for fun (which is true). If I also told you that I don’t care what others think of my writing, I would be telling porkies the size of Wilson’s best. I’m lucky  that Leeds Writers Circle are not slow to give constructive criticism and our novelists’ group are prepared to wrestle in detail with my prose. But still there’s that nagging doubt that even these blunt Yorkshire folk may be too polite or,  perish the thought, not quite up to the job.

So, at the beginning of November, I sent off the full manuscript for Walls of Fire, plus a covering letter and synopsis, to The Literary Consultancy (TLC). There, I’ve told you, I have spent good money on getting a professional critique of the whole thing. No offence to my friends in Leeds, this was an exercise in external validation, triangulation even. And I was following advice, though a year late. At the end of an Arvon course, Bernadine Evaristo advised that we send our best efforts off to TLC before we offered them to the marketplace. I have to confess that I’ve sent off Walls of Fire out to nine places this year, so a tad late to follow her advice, but to err…

If the experts at TLC …   Well, we can forget the conditional, their e-mail landed a couple of weeks ago – plus all nine pages of attachment from Jude Cook, my reviewer. It was a great relief to me that he was positive about a lot of my writing, highlighted two or three areas that need more attention and gave some useful advice about how to fix the problems. He did not spot any major areas that had not already been identified as weaknesses by my fellow writers up North, so I feel a sense of validation for them.

So far so helpful, now it’s down to the graft of re-editing. Over the next month or so I’ll be adding a bit more jeopardy to the sails and scraping surplus barnacles from the hull of the good ship Walls of Fire so she has better narrative propulsion. The number of portholes will be reduced so we don’t have so many points of view. Thus refitted, she will sail smoothly into the port of a welcoming agent or publisher. A grateful public will offload her literary treasures into their laps, marvel at the intricate warp and weft of the plot, fall in love with the marvellous characters and swoon at the denouement.

What better time to dream than at the turning of a year? Pangolin 15 and the first of the New Year is due out on January 28th.

Meanwhile, in real pangolin news, my friend Jon alerted me yesterday that Chinese officials have just seized their biggest haul of pangolin scales ever. It’s an irredeemably awful trade.