'Handy Hints for Writers' is a book of tips, advice and encouragement for writers at all levels. Dip into it, or read from start to finish and you will find something to inspire you, make you think, give you a kick start or make you smile.

For fifty-something Gail Lockwood the new millennium starts with redundancy. Her to-do list reads, 'Get a job. Pay off the suite. Do roots and nails. Get a man and get laid.' Not easy when her boss, the flamboyant Bradley Jones, has jetted off to Spain, and the job centre has nothing for a woman whose only qualification is a Brownie badge. Gail finds herself unemployed and firmly sandwiched between her eccentric mother and her problem daughter, Tamsin, a single mother who always seems to need last minute babysitting. But as she navigates through the job market, her mother's suspicious new boyfriend and an accident that brings her old boss back into her life, Gail starts to realize that sometimes, the most important things in life can't be put on a to-do list. Will Gail be able to navigate the ups and downs while still achieving everything on her list?