Hidden Talents - Tapa dura

Erica will be giving talks around publication and we have the following booked already:Knutsford Literary Festival - Monday 7 OctoberLancashire Literary Lunch and Dinner - 16 & 17 OctoberRoyal Guildford Grammar School - Friday1 November Preview has appeared in PUBLISHING NEWS: 'Erica James fans (and they're a considerable number) will find this well up to par'Barry Forshaw, PUBLISHING NEWS 'An engaging and friendly novel centred on a menagerie of characters drawn together by a creative writers group. Very readable' (4 stars)WOMA

Dulcie Ballantyne knows that creative writers' groups attract an unlikely mix of people, so when she starts up Hidden Talents, she is well prepared for the assortment of people she is bringing together. Beth King is facing empty-nest syndrome as her only son, Nathan, looks forwrad to leaving home for university. Jack Solomon, a local estate agent, is having trouble coming to terms with the shock of his wife leaving him for his best friend. Jaz Rafferty is an intensely private seventeen-year-old girl, who writes to escape her large, boisterous family. Victor Blackmore is an opinionated know-it-all, who claims to be writing the blockbuster novel every publisher will be clamouring for. What they all have in common is a need to escape, as well as a desire to keep their lives as private as possible. Even Dulcie who, at the age of sixty-three, has been having an affair with a married man for the last three years. As they grow more confident in their writing skills, friendships develop and gradually they come to realise that a little openness isn't necessarily a bad thing.