It's not easy to get it right at first. Texts don't always come out perfectly. A zero is round and so is a meatball and a potato. Things aren't what they seem... or are they? A manual for writers. Does fiction imitate reality? Does reality beat fiction? Is the author conducting the orchestra or just watching? Does the reader just read of do we interact with him? Is a writer born or made? The eternal question... What better way to explain how a novel is written. Who better to do so than a writer and academic with ink in her veins. Read the book, in comes the neighbour with the blue dressing gown from Guinea and the literary nurse, you'll have your answers.