Donald Maass's The Career Novelist -- for free

About a year or so ago, I wrote to Donald Maass thanking him for writing such interesting books, in particular The Career Novelist. I had had trouble getting hold of it but Anne Macallister came to my rescue and sent me a copy. The book made me feel far more comfortable about what I wanted to do with my career and where I wanted to go.
Mr Maass in his gracious reply said that there were no plans to update the book, but there were plans to put it on as a free download. The free download has FINALLY become available. Many thanks to Nina Harrington (Ray Anne) for alerting me to it. Even though, some bits are slightly out of date, it is a solid primer on the business of publishing, the way certain agents act, and where the money is made.
I would urge every author who desires to know more about publishing and writing novels for a career to read it. It has advice for all stages of the career -- from just starting out, to mid career and beyond. His advice on PR has so far proved spot on.
Here is hoping that the book he was writing at the time -- something about Fire in Your Belly also comes to print soon. His books are ALWAYS worth reading.
Donald Maass's advice is second to none. He is also on my dream list of agents to query -- whenever the great agent hunt begins. But I have to write and complete my single title before that happens. A career is not built overnight but slowly.

The Fox and ducks

Yesterday morning was fun and games when my youngest looked out of the window and yelled 'There is a fox in the garden."
It has been about two years or more, since we have had to deal seriously with Mr Reynard -- hence our rather large population of ducks.
Luckily this was a young fox whose idea of hunting was to chase the Motely Crew round and around. We let loose the dogs. And while the Border collie is useless, Chile the labrador is quite up for fox hunting and set off at a great pace. Mr Reynard exited stage left.
My bright idea was that we needed a bonfire as foxes do not like the smell of smoke. Unfortunately, due to the rain, it was very hard to get going and my husband decreed that it had to be immediately...even though he had to go to work. An hour later, covered in smoke, I decided that it was enough and retreated.
The ducks who were being Late Night Party ducks and who possibly wanted to rock to Quackennbury or another duck festival all decided to be sober honest hard working ducks who go to bed nice and early.

I have just finished reading The Career Novelist by Donald Maass and it is one of the best books I have read on the actual industry of publishing and I will blog more about it tomorrow. The book is hard to get hold of in Britain, so I am eternally grateful to Anne McAllister who sent me her copy.