How to Choose an Emergency Locksmith in London

Do you need an emergency locksmith in London? Well, let me tell you that you cannot find one so easily. Unfortunately, even if you find one faster than you had hoped, you should think twice before contacting him. The man you want to hire will step into your house and get to know your family and your wealth. This is a very important aspect to take into consideration when you let a stranger inside your home. For this reason and for many others, you should only hire a professional trustworthy emergency locksmith. But how can you find an emergency locksmith in London on such a short notice? In the vast majority of cases an emergency locksmith is exactly that, a person who can help you in an emergency situation. A situation like this can be when you locked yourself out of your car or your home. You must get inside but the locker is blocked. 

There are many companies out there that advertise that they offer emergency services but when you call in the middle of the night nobody answers. Few companies have an emergency locksmith in London or in your exact area where you live. Over the internet you will find websites of companies that have this service available. People who have hired them before rate them and you can read their reviews. Given the fact that nowadays everyone has a smartphone with internet access then a search like this is not hard to do. Always ask the call center of the company how much time is to be expected until the locksmith gets to you. This is very important since it wouldn't be enjoyable to wait in the cold or in the rain for the locksmith to get to you. Another important aspect is the cost of the service. With this advice in mind you can find a professional emergency locksmith in the United Kingdom in no time.

Keeping the Dream Alive

I've noticed I write a lot about keeping the dream alive, protecting the creative well, finding inspiration. Sometimes I feel like I'm beating a dead horse on the subject, but I keep coming back to it, because this is a tough business. It beats you (not the horse) to a bloody pulp and then expects you to get up and do it better, smarter, faster, possibly even perfect. No one else in the publishing equation has to be perfect, just the author. We also have to not mind bad reviews, rejections, edits that don't make sense and revisions that make even less sense. We have to be Super, superlative and always, always polite. We have to take it on the chin turn the other cheek and then turn the other cheek, get up and head back to the computer and be brilliant. For me, the symbol of this whacky business is a letter I got in response to a query to an agent about possibly representing my work. My query letter was as perfect as I could make it. No misspelled words. No hinky layouts. I had a hook, I had credetials interestingly presented it was almost flawless and it got me a yes, I'll take a look from the agent. So why is this one a symbol? Because the "yes" was written on one of those tiny, Post-it notes and stuck to my own letter. And the agent had misspelled "please". The irony of that still makes me smile.

Buzz on The Lists this Week

Two interesting discussions on my lists this week. One is about what readers are reading right now. What genres are losing steam, which are gaining ground. The concensus seems to be that you have to write the book you want to read, because trends change too fast and by the time they peak in the marketplace, it is already too late to jump on board. A lot of the usual grumblings about too much of the same old, same old. Tv viewers seem to have the same grips. The other discussion is on creating conflict that will sustain a book until the end. Some writers find it hard to torture their characters enough, in my experience. This seems to stem from a couple of problems. First, the characters don't have enough internal/external conflict at the beginning. From page one, you need to set your characters at odds with each other, but using real, believable problems. Even in real life relationships people have conflicts. But the type of conflict to sustain a book needs to be larger, stronger and harder to work through. Sandra Brown once said that if one character is a fireman, then the opposing character needs to be a suspected arsonist. 

The lesson is, the characters need to have opposing goals that collide with enough force to propel your plot forward. If you resolve a personal problem, then an external problem needs to rise up to cause problems. If you're having trouble torturing your characters with problems, I'd suggest watching a season of 24. Talk about putting characters through the ringer! Oh my. The other problem some writers seem to have is a reluctance to torture their characters. You create them and you, well, you like them. You don't want them to suffer, but you have to apply pressure. Think of your characters as coal. If you want to turn them into diamonds, then you have to apply the heat, and turn it up as high as is necessary for your story. I was kind of stuck in my latest book and a friend suggested I give the male character a secret. Just something as simple as that made him spring to life. Suddenly he had a back story and issues. It was great. Just keep in mind, as your brainstorming for problems, the first few ideas you come up with are probably cliches. Keep pushing until it hurts or the light bulb goes off and you feel excited again.

Writer's Block

Writer’s block is a devious torture that attacks an author and grips his mind with nothingness. I’ve been fortunate, knock on wood, for this malady to pass me by, until now, that is. Believe me, I have the utmost sympathy for those suffering from this torture. I don’t mean to infer my writing transferred from brain to fingers to computer in the blink of an eye, far from it, but I had not experienced sitting in front of a computer screen for very long without some words trickling out. I’m sure there are numerous reasons for a block. In my case, the recent death of a loved one triggered this response. At the time I thought writing would aid in the healing process. Wrong! Up stepped a wall of nothingness. Maybe I shouldn’t say nothingness because I could get a page out here and there, but I’d almost have a panic attack in the process. I finally gave up. It’s been a month now and the well of words is no longer dry. I had a dream that showed a huge cornucopia filled with letters written on small pieces of cardboard. The letters tumbled out forming words. That was my signal, my writing process was on its way back. Perhaps not as fast as before, but fast enough. Have you had a block to break through? I’d love to hear responses from other writers about this hindrance to the Great American Novel. Good writing,