Thanks for mentioning my award and the book contract. It was a pleasure meeting you. For some time I had wanted to thank you for the support and advice you’d given me over the last year. Because we have travelled a somewhat parallel path to publication it was fascinating to discuss writing and compare our very different approaches to planning and constructing a novel. I suppose there are as many ways as there are authors.

BTW, I’m enjoying your novel. The one thing our novels have in common is the occasional reference to the libation known as Scotch, although your protagonist has a taste for a more expensive distillation than mine.