Over the last few months I've been invitedto venues all over South Wales to talk about my novel, 'Salt Blue'. I enjoy meeting people and listening to their reactions to the book.

One night, someone I didn't know butwho was going to a class in thebuilding where I was giving a talk, fell into step with me andasked what my book was about.

I explained that one of the themes is about identityand the need to find out who one is. As she seemed interested, I said the story was about a young girl whohad to leaveherhometown and family and move to America to find her independence. Very often, in order to avoid beingmistaken for our parents, we have toshow the world who we really are.

My companion nodded, then told me she'd re-located from one end of the country in order to marry her same-sex partner. Her family could not accept who she was so, sadly, she had made the decision to move away.

On another occasion,I talked about stresses we're aware of on some level, butrefuse to examine, so they continue to trouble us. Stella has dreams and nightmares and she's advised to take up knitting as a way of relaxing. Eventually, a friend helps herto look at the roots of her unease and accept what she has known all along.

It's not always easy talking like this to a group, because it's hard to gauge their reaction. Isaid theanswers todifficult questionscan be found if weallowourselves to find the solution.

After I'd finished and almost everyone had left the room, one of my listeners waited behind to tell me about an accident she had suffered a few years previously. The result of it was that she had developedflashbacks to a time in her life she would rather forget.

Isuggested she kept a 'dream' diary. Any dream that woke her up, or she remembered the next day, was to be written down. Once the dreamwas on paper she had to visualise it movingfrom hermind into the diary and waiting there.

When the diary was full I wondered if she might want to turn it intoa book. This is what she was hoping to do, she said.

Conversely,she might find she was tired of the past and would want to burn the diary and the memories.

This is the power of writing, theaccess it gives to one'sthoughts.As E.M. Forster said, 'How do I know what I think until I see what I say?'

The problem with writing honestly is that we reveal ourselves, but anything less is boring. Think of Samuel Pepys, still entertaining centuries later.