Never open a book with weather. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.

Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story.

I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.