Granted I no longer work in an office and share water cooler moments with colleagues, but it seems to me that there’s very little buzz about one of the best US television imports at the moment: The Good Wife. This legal drama, set in the offices of law firm Lockhart Gardner and starring Julianna Margulies (who I’m currently watching in the early series of ER) as Alicia Florrick, the eponymous main character, is now in its second series. It delivers one of my favourite formats, a discrete story in each episode with several longer storylines running concurrently, such as the campaign by Alicia’s disgraced husband Peter (played by Chris Noth, Mr Big in Sex and the City) to be re-elected as governor.

The cast is great, including Alan Cumming (with a very convincing accent) as Eli Gold, Peter’s scheming campaign manager, Josh Charles and Christine Baranski playing the law firm’s partners, and a raft of cameos from the likes of F Murray Abraham, Michael J Fox and Gary Cole. There’s also a stunning performance by British actress Archie Panjabi (East is East and Bend it Like Beckham) as investigator Kalinda Sharma (pictured above). The character’s back story is being slowly revealed and the part has grown in importance since Series 1 because, I suspect, Kalinda has proved so popular with viewers. Punjabi plays her brilliantly, not averse to using her sexuality to get what she wants from members of either sex, but at the same time suggesting a brittle vulnerability that Kalinda hides like a dirty secret.

As with the best of legal dramas, The Good Wife depicts how in law there are often no absolutes of right and wrong, just a grubby grey area in between. Lockhart Gardner (the characters and the firm) play dirty, though often this is simply giving their opponents, in and out of the courtroom, as good as they get (Michael J Fox’s lawyer is an inspired creation, a man who plays on his disability to charm judge and jury). And the political games that Alan Cumming’s character plays in order to help his guy win are equally devious, yet you’re still rooting for him.

Despite this wholehearted recommendation, I suggest you get the boxed set or wait for the repeat of Series 1 before watching the second. You’ll get much more out of it that way. Just don’t be disappointed that you have to wait a while for Cumming to appear.

A comedian recently did a skit about Radio 4’s Thought for the Day (on The Now Show, I think). It starts off interesting, he said, but then the speaker always has to spoil things by bringing God in, creating connections between any given subject and religion. I’m about to do the same thing, banging on about writing, though, not religion.

Writing – especially of a novel – is often compared with going on a journey. It can involve taking wrong turnings, running out of fuel, realising you’ve forgotten your handbag and having to go back home and find it sitting on the hall table. You know the sort of thing and I’m sure you can come up with your own. But now I’m going to take the analogy further. Sorry.

I’ve always been jealous of my husband’s driving abilities. While I’m too feart (not a typo but another fine Scots word) even to tackle motorways, he can drive anything anywhere. Buses in Edinburgh, vans down the M1, left-hand-drive automatics in Montana – he just climbs in and off he goes. When I was recently bemoaning my own lack of adaptability in this respect he countered with, ‘But you can write anything’. And while ‘anything’ is too great a claim, on reflection I realised he has a point.

So I made a list of the different forms I write in (yours is possibly even longer):

*The Novel – top of the list because my ultimate ambition is to be a published novelist.

*Short stories – winning or getting placed in a prestigious competition would be a great addition to my writing CV. Also, some ideas suit a shorter treatment.

*Website and blog – I’ve started to ‘build my platform’ before being published, and it's a great way to meet folk out there when I’m stuck in here. Also useful to enforce a regular writing habit.

*Twitter – who’d have thought it so hard to express even the simplest thought in 140 characters (inc. spaces)? 

*Competitions – often requiring similar discipline in streamlining one’s words as demanded by Twitter. The prizes can range from a single book to tickets for a literary festival (I went to the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival for free last year by writing just 50 words).

*Business – to keep solvent I provide copywriting and other business services to paying clients. This in turn subdivides into writing print copy and writing for the internet.

*Study – I’m in the penultimate year of studying for an Open University degree. Film and TV History isn’t as frivolous as it sounds, and requires formally written essays at regular intervals. And an exam.

AL Kennedy** describes herself on Twitter as 'general wordperson', reflecting the range of her work. She's not tied down to one form of writing. I like the description and the philosophy behind it.

**And if you follow the link to her website be sure to visit the FAQ page. Hilarious!

. . . is Twitter's a wonderful thing.

It stops you from doing other stuff. Like blogging.

I can’t blame the virus that invaded my computer any more. I’ve hardly blogged since I got my pc back because I’ve been tweeting. It's fun and easy. Perhaps the trick is to restrict myself to 140-character blog entries.

Anyway, to catch up, in the last month I have:

• Reached the penultimate chapter of No Stranger to Death in my first edit. As it contains one of the most important scenes in the whole thing, it’s proving difficult to get as right as I want. (Much like that last sentence! But this is a blog - it doesn't have to be perfect, right?) However, if I’ve learnt one thing getting this far, it is that I will find the right words – eventually. Actually, this is a major leap forward, having eough confidence in my abilities not to panic when I hit a sticky patch and just work through it.
• Attended Nicola Morgan’s ‘What’s Wrong with my Manuscript?’ workshop. This included a critique of chapter 1 and my synopsis as well as a few hours of intensive tutoring. Eye-opening and invaluable. If you’re an aspiring writer and haven’t discovered Nicola’s ‘Help! I Need a Publisher! blog, you really should. The book-of-the-blog comes out in June.
• Sent off my first chapter and synopsis (now much improved, thanks to Nicola) to CrimeFest in preparation for my Pitch-an-Agent slot. Will try not to agonise over this until nearer the time.
• Read several books, including:
  • Truth Lies Bleeding by Tony Black (who I met recently when he was doing a book-signing in Kelso).
  • This is How by MJ Hyland (the first book in ages I’ve read as a member of the Berwick Book Group and been able to enthuse about). Follow the link to read the Group’s blog about what everyone thought and a comment left by the author hrself. She could give lessons in being gracious.
  • Black Water Rising by Attica Locke, one of the ‘new blood’ authors at last year’s Harrogate.
• Continued my OU history-of-film course. I’m loving it and got 80% for my first essay. I'm now working on the second essay and having to watch lots of old westerns and melodrama for it.
• Become besotted all over again with George Clooney, as I’m watching ER from the very beginning, thanks to that new Sky channel (I missed it first time around). It’s also fun to spot well-known actors in early roles, such as Ving Rhames, Marg Helgenburger and William H Macy.
• Enjoyed the opening theme to Boardwalk Empire so much I bought the album. It’s by a band called The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and reminds me in places of the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones (unsurprisingly, given their name) and is that some early Lloyd Cole I can hear too? I was pleased with myself, liking and buying some ‘new’ music, until I realised the album dates back to 1996.
• Thus far resisted allowing any of my hens (despite several of them going broody) to sit on a few eggs. I’m not sure if I’ll be so resolute after our holiday. Hatching chicks is such fun, and while I’m wary of bringing more cats or dogs into the world, there’s always room for a few more chickens.

Nicola Morgan's Help! I Need a Publisher! blog is featuring an interview with crime writer Aline Templeton. I'm a big fan of Aline's books and the lady herself, who was gracious enough a few years ago to visit my local library in Duns and speak to us about writing. I also attended an excellent writing workshop she gave at Edinburgh Book Festival in 2009.

Not enough people know about Aline and her work, so if you're one of them, what are you waiting for? Read the blog and treat yourself to at least one of her books. You'll be pleased you did.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to blog because my PC was attacked by a particularly nasty virus which eventually required hospitalisation. However, I'm now back online and once I've caught up with all the outstanding emails and work-related stuff shouting for attention I can settle down and write a few blogs.

In the meantime, because I was feeling so out of touch, I learnt something new. I'm now on Twitter: @janetokane .