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Back Written From the Heart Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. By Trisha Ashley
  4. Dedication
  5. Praise for Trisha Ashley:
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Foreword
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. Thirty
  38. Thirty-One
  39. Thirty-Two
  40. Tina’s Top Tips for New Writers
  41. Tina’s Espresso Ice Cream
  42. Sergei Popov’s Russian Blinis
  43. Linny’s Lebanese Baba Ganoush
  44. Read More
  45. 1
  46. 2
  47. The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
  48. A Leap of Faith
  49. A Good Heart is Hard to Find
  50. Did you love this book?

The Ramblings,

Bosson Surcoat,

Cresney

Dear Ms Devino,

I have now read your comments and it is clear to me that you are incapable of appreciating a work of the magnitude of Banking On It, and indeed, have advertised your services under false pretences. It is not my policy to throw good money after bad, so do not expect to receive any further cheques from me.

As to length, I can only point out the many, many blockbuster novels abounding on the shelves of airport bookshops, many of which are by famous authors who have ‘crossed genres’, as you put it, several times in the same book, so your advice to stick to one genre is also short-sighted in the extreme.

As to breaking the manuscript up into chapters and indenting paragraphs, obviously this was merely a rough draft and these very minor points have been addressed in the final rewrite.

What I was hoping to receive from you was information to enable me to present Banking On It in a way that would draw the attention of publishers to its unique qualities, and you have failed me most dismally. Your contention that no publisher would be interested in it in its present form is ridiculous: why, the merest glance at newspapers and magazines shows that there are many, many publishing houses crying out for new writers, and clearly I should be targeting these smaller firms rather than the bigger ones, who evidently receive so many manuscripts that they cannot perceive the true gem among the dross.

Should your conscience by now be troubling you, you could return the first payment for services you so signally failed to deliver. I will not be recommending you to my many friends and acquaintances.

Yours sincerely,

Harold Snaith, ACA

I saw Tube Man on my way to Miracle’s office, which is around the corner from the Ritz, and it took me by surprise to see him somewhere other than on the tube. Our eyes met – and his were like warm treacle – and we both smiled as people do when they half-recognize each other, but can’t remember where from, which at least meant he had noticed me as well as the other way around. Unfortunately we’d passed each other by the time I’d realized that he was Tube Man, and by the time I had turned round, he had vanished into the crowd, or the Ritz, or back into my subconscious, or somewhere.