Goodbye and good luck, Alison! And hello to Ben ...

Because I have a kind face . . .?! Yep, had to look Bruce Campbell up! I did follow Billy Bragg, one of my favourite musicians, for a while, but his tweets were dull and he disappeared in a cull. Spider Stacy from The Pogues survived, but then he rants eloquently! I think I want my celebrities to be either funny or informative if they're to stay on the list.

Good grief! I've read a couple of her books. Liked the first one, but the rest seemed too similar to the Lynda LaPlante sort of thing. Hadn't heard about the ghost writer!

Hi Pepper! I think it was about time the MWA tried to address the problem. The whole thing has been a minefield for some years and the self-published issue has made life tricky for review sites like www.reviewingtheevidence. We know damn well that a load of legit small publishers have been hit by the rulings. So I hope this latest round from the MWA starts to clarify the ebook issue.

Hi Adele. I've done the same - read some fairly lightweight books that I know I either wouldn't have bought the print version of, or would have felt guilty for doing so! Some sort of symbol would be so useful! Although I can imagine the whining it would provoke from the self-published brigade who tend to claim that they're not really self-published, honest! It's always tricky for the legit small publishers. RTE has always gone to some lengths to make sure their books get reviewed where possible.

Nice to see you, Roy! Hope you're OK. And I don't know how we do sift through the mass of ebook material. I've found myself half-relying on the Amazon reviews, which is hardly foolproof, given the number of squeeing reviews which clearly do come from friends or family. I assume some blogs are reviewing ebooks. RTE isn't. The MWA are rejigging their guidelines to include kosher ebook publishers on their approved list. I'm not sure how much that will help.

Congrats, Robert!

Welcome, Josh! I'm a night owl -- my latest book routinely got worked on at 2am -- so 5am is the time which I associate with early runs to work when no one should talk to me until I've had two cups of coffee!

I'm going to miss you, Barbara! But my laptop won't, having had all manner of beverages spat over it whilst I was reading your blog entries!

I adore puns! In the midst of some truly dire festive UK television was a re-runs of The Two Ronnies, who were the masters of word play. One of their most famous sketches was the 'four candles' one where the bloke goes into a hardware shop and asks for 'four candles'. In fact, he wants handles for forks! And it goes on like this. And then there's the one with the lord and lady of the manor and the cheeky butler serving them dinner. "Your sweet, my lady." "Your nuts, my lord." And they have a classic one in a restaurant where the characters communicate purely using single spoken letters. "F U N E X?" "9 V FN N E X." Classic comedy that never dates.

It took me a while to get wise to the number of writers wanting to friend me, who were simply using Facebook for BSP. I'm now choosier about who I accept friend requests from. And yay for the 'hide' button, which means the six worst BSP merchants are hidden from my view! I haven't defriended anyone yet, but I'm coming close to it with one or two heavy-duty religious people (well, I didn't know when they friended me, and they obviously ignored my sarky comment under religion!)

Um . . . Good question. Characters who are too stupid to live. Mean-spiritedness. Cheating the reader.

Good one, Dana! Excellent advice all down the line.

I love lists! I agree totally with Homicide: Life on the Street. I'd have to find a space for The Wire, though. And on the list of the crappiest movie remakes of all time, I'd start off with Edge of Darkness and The Wicker Man!

Another good question! I'm a journalist and I'm paid to be nosy, so I know I do go off and investigate new musicians or actors or writers I come across. It would be nice to think we can appreciate something for its own sake without knowing about the creator of it, but in the digital age we live in, it's all too difficult for something to stand alone. And sometimes, all we can do as individuals is to boycott someone who does have distasteful views. It's the only way we can show how we feel, even if it barely scratches the surface (not buying a book by the person or paying to see a film they're in).

Good question. I don't know either. I've had the same dilemma in the past with actors or musicians where I haven't cared for some aspect of their personality/views/private life. I remember having the conversation with a very left-wing friend, who said rather lugubriously: "Yes, but Wagner wrote a damn good tune . . .!"

Congratulations, Lynne! May Creme de la Crime continue to flourish indeed!

It sounds wonderful! I wonder if Gerald's books will be published this side of the pond. And now you have me trying to think of other books set in the world of music. There's one by whatsername who sets her books in Bath where the main character is (I think) a cello player. And there was David Hiltbrand's good series with a music industry PI -- I wonder what happened to those. And I've always rather liked Ace Atkins' blues-influenced books. One of my books of last year was a quirky book called A Tribute to Zed Beddington from a tiny UK publisher and set in the lower reaches of the music world.

Gun laws in the UK are -- rightly in my view -- very strict. Knife crime, though, appears to be a growing problem. The differences between the US and the UK were really brought home to me a few months back when a US university professor (who also used to be a cop) came to talk to our research group. He'd asked for a show of hands from his new undergraduates (I think his uni was in Florida) and a very high proportion of them (90% springs to mind) had guns. We all just gaped at him in disbelief!

Welcome, Dale! I stopped reading the Kellerman books because the oh-so-perfect Rina made my teeth hurt! I'm still hanging in there with Stephanie Plum, but you're absolutely right . . .

I agree with everything you've said about the first book, Maxine! And I'm not falling over myself to read the second one . . . It's a mystery to me why writers with no interest in that side of the genre persist in writing police procedurals. I don't like being asked to check my disbelief in at the door!

Good ones, Dana! Shifting pov drives me demented . . .

*Cries with laughter* Inga, please marry me and have my babies!