Right now I am trying to reduce a 1750-word novel synopsis to just 600 words. Gaah! Does anyone have any good synopsis tips to share? (I reduced it from 1780 words to 1750 the other day. I'm thinking my hopeful plan of just cutting all the adjectives & adverbs may not be enough to carry me through...)

Needless to say, there wasn't any writing done yesterday (since the whole day was made up of, first, the Liverpool trip, then crashing on the couch to recover from it), but the day before yesterday, I took some time out from synopsis head-banging (much less fun than the rock 'n roll version) to write the first 300 words of a new adult historical novel that's been haunting me for a while. I am now telling myself Very Firmly that I must finish the novel I'm working on before I can write another one. We'll see how my resolution holds out...

And can I just say how much I desperately, desperately want a writing notebook like the one Neil Gaiman is currently using? Ohhhhh, the wanting. Now I just need to get to Venice to buy one...

I just finished re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt, which I loved, and which - like all of her books - put me in the mood to write. I was talking to Justina the other day about the idea of authors who make you want to write. For me, it's Lois McMaster Bujold - although I love her fantasy novels most, any time I read any of her novels, regardless of genre or story, something about her voice and style immediately puts me in the mood to write and sends ideas swirling through my head. (Ideas, I should add, that are totally unrelated to the book I've just read - it's just something about reading her that gets my own writer-brain stimulated and in the mood for play.) For Justina, reading Neil Gaiman does the same thing.

How about you guys? Which writers spark the urge in you to write?