Being likeable never stopped Rod Liddle or AA Gill. Just be amusing and interesting - not too much to ask is it :-) Go on - offend us, anger us, stimulate us, just don't be bland!

PS I've just seen your previous blog posts so maybe they're not lost.

It's exciting to hear about your powerful urge to communicate, and that it might or might not happen sometime soon!

Just be interesting and we'll probably like you! I'm currently reading your second book and pretty much disposed to like you.... :-)

I've enjoyed reading the Alec Blume series and have been waiting a LONG time for Cardinal Witness. When will it finally be available and/or what is holding it hostage from Alec's fans?

Being pleasant is highly overrated. I just discovered the Alec Blume series and am already hooked.

Love your characters, including those who just drop in. Love your non-trivial engagement with social and historic issues, past and present. Love your "worldview" of Italy and Italian people. Love your depiction of the Italian police and how they tie in to Europe's as well as their own troubled past. Can't say I really love Alec, but I respect him and obviously he's our hero. Love your satirical portrayal of certain European citizens that border on caricature. Love your hyper-intelligent and eminently readable writing. No literary expert, I, obviously, just a lover of particularly good books, like yours and Martin Cruz Smith and Ariana Franklin, fer instance. Figure you've got five or maybe seven more in ya. Therefore! Wish you luck, well more luck, and a long life.

Who cares what people think? You're in it for you and your fans, or not!!! Keep those stories coming! Plus I'd like to read more Alec Blume mysteries!! Come on, man!!!