Lesson one in time travel, Thursday. First of all, we are all time travellers. The vast majority of us manage only one day per day.

Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.

You have many fine qualities that I admire. But you are out of time. You should have been born a century ago, when values such as yours meant something.

This is our siblings of more famous BookWorld Personalities self-help group expalined Loser (Gatsby). That's Sharon Eyre, the younger and wholly disreputable sister of Jane; Roger Yossarian, the draft dodger and coward; Rupert Bond, still a virgin and can't keep a secret; Tracy Capulet, who has slept her way round Verona twice; and Nancy Potter, who is a Muggle.

Apart from the faint odor of ink that pervaded the scene, it might have been real.

A surfeit of information often hides an untruth,” he said, with annoying clarity.

Writing needs to be practiced; there is a limit to how much can be gleaned from a teacher or a manual. The true essence of writing is out there, in the world, and inside, within yourself. To write, you have to give.