How does one promote a book? This question continued to nag at me as I went about my business in Port Naain. How on earth was I going to live up to my promise to ensure ‘A Bad Penny’ gained more sales than it rightfully deserved?
Now I was in the Silk Merchant’s Repose. This is perhaps one of the better taverns in Port Naain, and to be frank not one I regularly repair to, but on this occasion I was working. The landlord had a daughter who was attending Dame Ralash’s school for ‘young maidens of humble family up to the age of thirteen.’ Shena my lady wife is an ‘old girl’ of this school and so Dame Ralash felt no shame in conscripting me to assist a current pupil. The girl had a love of writing stories and the Dame wanted somebody professional to run an eye over them and offer editorial advice. Hence I was selected to spend an hour with the girl and her mother, sipping infusions, nibbling sugar fancies and working my way through the child’s tales.

It’s comparatively basic stuff, just pointing out how things could be done better, offering suggestions and giving the budding writer some thoughts and ideas that will challenge them. But above all, it’s just encouraging them to write. Writing is just another craft like joinery or metalwork, the more you do it, the better you get.

Anyway I finished my task, spending far longer than the allotted hour, and looking back I think the girl benefited. I left the family sitting room and crossed the Snug to get out onto the street when I heard a voice shout, “Tallis Steelyard, come here and drink wine with me.”

Now that isn’t something a fellow hears too often so immediately I turned in the direction of the voice to see Wain Drobbet gesturing towards me. Wain is a big man physically but an even bigger man lives inside him. With his pince nez and ridiculous moustache people sometimes refuse to take him seriously, which is their loss, not his.

Continue reading here: Nobody does it like that any more