Bookworm: When writers need a rest

IF WE are to believe Ian Rankin (and we do, we do) he's going to have a quiet year in 2010, perhaps not even writing anything.

JK Rowling doesn't return Bookworm's calls so one can only surmise what New Year's resolutions she made. Chances are a trip to open the Harry Potter theme park at Orlando is on the cards, but apart from that, what?

Of the Edinburgh Big Three, therefore, that leaves only Alexander McCall Smith. But his schedule for 2010 is busy enough for all three of them.

For a start, there'll be 11 books. Yes, you read that right. Eleven.

He starts off gently. This month, not a single one. But by February, he's into his stride. Along with the paperback of Teatime for the Traditionally Built, the tenth in the Mma Ramotswe series, he's written a short book, Precious and the Puggies, about her very first case. It's translated into Scots by the estimable James Robertson for his excellent Itchy Coo imprint, and is a world first – not available in any other language until next year.

For March, there's the hardback for Little, Brown of the 11th Mma Ramotswe novel, The Double Comfort Safari Club. April sees the paperback for Polygon of Corduroy Mansions, May the hardback for Little, Brown of The Dog Who Came in From the Cold, the second in the Corduroy Mansions series. June has the paperback of The Lost Art of Gratitude, the sixth in the Isabel Dalhousie series, and July sees publication of the seventh in the Scotland Street series, The Importance of Being Seven. In August Polygon bring out the seventh Isabel Dalhousie novel.

In September, McCall Smith rests. He sails his boat, goes for long walks, contemplates stamp collecting. The one thing he does not do is publish a novel.

But by October, the itch to publish has grown too strong, and he's back with (for Polygon) another Mma Ramotswe Cookbook. And in November, there's no holding him back: not only a standalone novel but very possibly another one in the Von Igelfeld series.

In December, he rests again. 2010 will be almost a memory. And alongside all of those 11 books, he'll be able to look back on a year in which he has also travelled half the world (yet again), with massive tours to Australia and America, and very probably staged an opera in Britain. He'll have done a lot more than that too, but I'm so tired even writing this lot down that I can't bring myself to mention it. I should, however, mention that 44 Scotland Street starts again in The Scotsman on Monday. And no, I haven't a clue how he does it all either.

CASEBOOK RE-OPENED

THE only Scot to come remotely close to this Stakhanovite rate of literary production was AJ Cronin, and a few weeks ago we were lamenting that all of his novels are now out of print. No longer, it seems. In June, to remind us what we've been missing, Birlinn brings out an omnibus edition of Dr Finlay's Casebook.