When I receive money for a birthday I will invariably spend some of it on books. This year was no exception. With the money now gone I'm left with eight books that I'm looking forward to reading. They're a mix of crime fiction, literary fiction, women's fiction, biography and other non-fiction.

I've always read widely and that's usually the first piece of advice an author will give to someone - to write you have to read.

I think it's good advice for everyone. We should all read widely and perhaps try something we wouldn't usually pick. Sometimes we'll end up with something we don't like and just put it aside, or we'll skim through it as we don't like it but we really want to know what happens at the end; but other times we'll be surprised by how much we're enjoying a new book and will want to read more.

Which brings me onto my genre; humour. Personally I don't like genre headings. It's the same when someone asks what type of music you like and they start talking about grunge and garage and I have no idea what sort of music that is. I like what I like; there isn't a particular type. For me literature is the same. Okay, so the headings are more recognisable but as a humorous writer, my writing can, and does, take me into all of those other genres.

I've mentioned before that agents seem afraid to take humour on because it's too subjective but really they should take a chance. A humorous story isn't all jokes. First and foremost it has to have a great storyline and believable characters, just like every other novel out there. The only difference is that there's more humour in the story than most of the others. That's it. Yes, because humour is subjective some people may laugh at some bits while others don't, but the storyline itself doesn't suffer for the lack of a few laughs.

I would describe myself as writing comedy drama. There's fun and laughter in my novels but also sadness and heartbreak. I like to think that they replicate real life.

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION is about finding yourself having to start over again. The protagonist, Derek is forty five, his wife has divorced him and kept the family home. Not long after, he's made redundant. In the space of a few months he's lost his wife, home, job and confidence. That's where the story opens with him trying to get away from it all on a holiday. Yes, there are lots of funny situations he finds himself in with a cast of eccentric and amusing characters but it's through them that he realises his situation isn't so unique. Each one of those characters has found themselves either starting over or about to start over again in their lives which helps give Derek strength and makes him feel positive about the future

NOTHING VENTURED is about taking a chance in life. While Dr Bryant's infatuation with his locum and Grace & Robert's attempts at spicing up their sex life are humorous asides to the main story; their reasons for their actions are very real and not actually humorous. For me, the main story between Diana and Lou, while a story about two women stuck in a rut for different reasons, can also be seen as a message that we shouldn't look to other people's lives to measure our own by.

Diana is nothing like her journalist sister, who travelled the world to report from war-torn countries but she can't help comparing their lives after her sister dies. It's Lou who points out that Diana can still make changes to her own life that don't have to be huge adrenalin rushes. For example, in Diana's world, learning to drive is a huge thing and she shouldn't worry that someone else may thing it a bit pathetic that she's never done it before. We're all different people with different personalities and different ideas.

I don't think social media helps when it comes to comparisons. Where it used to be just the magazines that would airbrush celebs on their pages to create an unrealistic image, everyone can do that now with app filters applied to photos before sharing them. I really don't understand the need to do that. It's the same with the competitive friends on Facebook. Someone puts a comment that they're holidaying in a certain country or they're eating a meal in an expensive restaurant and invariably a comment will come from a friend that says, "Yes I loved that city" or "You must try the crab cakes" just to show that they've been there and been there first.

But I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that a humorous story isn't so different from a crime novel, a thriller, or a piece of literary fiction. It should be a great story that the reader can enjoy and identify with and therefore can be just as popular as other genres. So, if you're reading this and haven't considered a humorous novel before; give it a go; read a John O'Farrell or a Tom Sharpe you won't be disappointed. Oh, or you could start with one of mine!