The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes said a team of historians and researchers found a document written by the SNB, or Czech Communist police, that identified Kundera as the person who informed on a man who was later imprisoned for 14 years. The reclusive Kundera, the author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," lives in Paris. Phone calls to his publisher seeking comment were not immediately returned.

According to the file, published on the institute's Web site, Kundera in 1950 informed on Miroslav Dvoracek, who had been recruited in Germany by the Czech emigre intelligence network to work as a spy against the Communist regime. Dvoracek visited a woman in Prague and left a suitcase in her apartment. She told her boyfriend, who later told Kundera, and Kundera went to the police. Dvoracek was arrested when he came to collect the suitcase. He was later sentenced to 22 years in prison and eventually served 14, working in uranium mines.

*****

Kundera joined the Communist Party as a student, but was expelled after criticizing its totalitarian nature. After the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia crushed the liberal reforms of Alexander Dubcek, he left the country. The books Kundera wrote after his departure were banned from publication in his homeland until the Communist collapse in 1989, but his work was respected among dissidents.

British writers were yesterday coming to terms with the death of the doyenne of the London literary scene, Pat Kavanagh, paying tribute to her strength of spirit, tenacity and straight-talking.

Kavanagh, 68, who was married to the novelist Julian Barnes, was at the summit of her profession, representing writers including Ruth Rendell, Margaret Drabble, Robert Harris, Joanna Trollope, Andrew Motion, Clive James, and Wendy Cope. What the writers had in common was their fierce loyalty to their agent, who died yesterday morning from a brain tumour.

The novelist Robert Harris - a client for 27 years - said everyone was reeling from her loss. "She was fantastically efficient and just the person you wanted to have represent you. There was no one quite like her really. And she was exotic, like a bird of paradise. She was unflappable and she didn't let you get above yourself.

"She always described herself as being like a family doctor or a country solicitor. She didn't believe in trying to screw an enormous amount of money out of publishers. Pat was always quite indiscreet and very funny and you know, in a world full of bs, there was no bs from Pat. She didn't suck up to her writers."

Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Van de Wetering moved to Maine in 1975 and enjoyed a passion for Zen Buddhism, motorcycles and jazz, among other things, the Bangor Daily News reported. He died on July 4 of complications from cancer, said Nikki Smith, his longtime literary agent.

Van de Wetering lived in a number of countries including Japan, where he joined a Zen monastery, which he wrote about in his first book, "The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery." Later, Van de Wetering created the popular "Grijpstra and de Gier" series of detective novels, set in Amsterdam, that drew from his experience as a police officer.

In 1984, he was awarded the international Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, a French prize for crime fiction, for his book "The Maine Massacre," a Grijpstra and de Gier mystery set in Maine.

A fire on Saturday caused about $20,000 in damage to the home of Tom Clancy, a best-selling author of political thrillers, authorities said. Firefighters were called to Clancy's Calvert County, Maryland, home about 12:15 p.m., said Lt. Fred Holzberger of the Prince-Frederick Volunteer Fire Department.

Clancy and his family were home at the time, but no one was injured, Holzberger said. He said the fire started on the deck and reached the home. The blaze was extinguished in about 20 minutes. The fire is under investigation by the Maryland fire marshal's office

A friend rings and tells me that my novel Into the Woods (David Fickling Books) is at 2,993 in the Amazon rankings. This is like offering crack cocaine to a recovering drug addict. I have been trying to wean myself off my obsession with the Amazon rankings. I'm not quite ready to go cold turkey, but I am desperately trying to limit myself to just one hit a day.

Why are we first-time authors so obsessed with the Amazon rankings? Partly because, like pretending to do your tax return or essential research, it offers yet another displacement activity to avoid the real hard business of writing. But it's also because once your book is out there, all alone in the big wide world, you desperately want to know if it's thriving or has got completely lost - and for a considerable period nobody can tell you.

The Amazon rankings are something to cling to, even though you know in your heart and head that they are both meaningless and psychologically damaging - unless you are a consistent bestseller like Jacqueline Wilson or God. (I have taken ridiculous and entirely childish comfort from the fact that that while the King James Bible sits many thousands of places above Into the Woods in the rankings, it only has an average 4.5-star customer review rating, while my novel has five).

In fact an Amazon ranking pretty well tells you nothing at all unless you are an Amazon sales executive or the kind of person who, when logging on with the intention of buying Into the Woods suddenly decides that The Institute of Electrical Engineers On Site Guide (BS7671: 2001 16th Edition Wiring Regulations Including Amendment 2: 2002) might be a far better read because it sits at number 69 in the top 100. I suppose for some readers there is probably a perceived safety in numbers.

The 2005 online auction raised $150,000 for the nonprofit organization devoted to protecting freedom of information, expression and petition.

It also thrilled nearly two dozen fans who paid to see their names in print, according to David Greene, executive director.

Linda-gail Case, 52, a self-proclaimed "tried and true" Nora Roberts fan, spent $6,800 last year to see her name in Roberts' latest novel, Angels Fall.

For Case, it's been "a hoot" reading about Linda-gail, a waitress who has a crush on the town's bad boy.

Case said that seeing her unusual name in print is distracting, and she often needs to reread chapters.

About 40 descendants of Nathaniel Hawthorne gathered in Concord on Monday to watch as the remains of his wife and daughter, buried for more than a century in England, were interred in the family plot at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery alongside the author. "It's greatly significant to see the family reunited," said Alison Hawthorne Deming, 59, of Tucson, Arizona, Hawthorne's great-great-grandaughter.

*****

Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables," died in New Hampshire in 1864. His wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, moved to England with their three children and died there six years later. She and their daughter Una were buried at Kensal Green cemetery in London. Hawthorne's daughter, Rose, returned to the United States and started a Catholic order dedicated to caring for cancer patients. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, based in Hawthorne, New York, had paid to maintain the Hawthorne graves in England. But when cemetery officials told the nuns that the grave site needed costly repairs, the order arranged to have remains reburied in Concord instead.

On Monday, one modern casket containing the remains of mother and daughter was put on a horse-drawn 1860 wooden hearse and carried from a local funeral home through the town center to a church for the memorial service. About 40 family members and a group of nuns from the order followed the hearse in a procession. A minister offered a brief prayer and recounted the Hawthornes' time living at the Old Manse, located walking distance from the Old North Bridge, where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired, sparking the American Revolution.

The procession -- which traced the path of Nathaniel Hawthorne's funeral procession -- then moved back through town to the cemetery, about a quarter-mile away. The burial, which was private, took place in the section of the cemetery known as Author's Ridge, not far from where writers Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott are buried.

Q: You stopped giving in-person interviews in 1977 and don't do book tours. Why?

A: I have learned that when I talk about writing, I stop doing any writing for some time afterward. (I always say there must be some sort of Writing Elf who retreats in a sulk the instant he's exposed.)

*****

Q: Do you think too many authors tell too much about their personal lives?

A: I don't for a minute question other writers' discussing their personal lives; in fact I'm usually very interested when they do. But in my own case, I'm trying to be "transparent." I'd like my characters to shine straight through me as if I were invisible. I don't want my writing style to be a style that's noticed, and I certainly don't want my readers stepping outside my story to think, "Hmm, the husband here sounds like the author's husband," or "I wonder if the author had this same experience." That would defeat my purpose, which is to convince my readers that they're living inside the world of my book.

MEG CABOT'S BOOK SIGNING DO'S AND DON'TS FOR WRITERS:

1) DON'T BE A SLOB

Writers, I recognize that you are sensitive artists who want to be known for your creative writing, not your fashion sense. But for the love of God, people, you are at a book signing. Your readers are seeing you live and in person for the first time. SO WHY DIDN'T YOU BRUSH YOUR HAIR?????

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2) DON'T BE A WEIRDO

If there is anything that burns me up more than an author who makes no effort to look nice for his or her readers, it's authors who act all weird because they think people in the "creative arts" are "special."

I am not talking about throwing on a tiara and a feather boa, either. I am talking about authors who pretend their books aren't written by them, but by their characters. As in, "I didn't want to kill off So-and-So, but Name of Main Character insisted on it! There was nothing I could do!"

*****

...I fear that some authors say things like this so often, they are actually starting to believe it. I know this because authors are saying it to ME, in private conversations, with no readers present. And I find myself going, "Uh-huh. Really? Your characters actually talk to you? That's so interesting, because you know, I made my characters up, so they can't talk to me, because they ARE NOT REAL."

The truth is, authors, characters cannot act and think independently of you because they are FIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION. When your character says or does something, it is because YOU MADE THEM DO IT. Your characters DO NOT ACTUALLY EXIST except on paper and in your head.

Universities are employing some of Britain's best-known authors to teach creative writing to an unprecedented number of students. Lucrative book deals and the new breed of celebrity author have led to a surge of interest in a potential career in writing. Universities across the country are cashing in on the glamorous new image, with 85 offering postgraduate creative writing courses, compared with fewer than 10 a decade ago. Statistics from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) show that a third of institutions now run an undergraduate creative writing course, or offer it as an option with disciplines as wide-ranging as theology and human biosciences.

As competition to attract quality applicants grows, leading figures in the literary world are being enticed to head departments. Brunel University, in Middlesex, is the latest to capitalise on the trend and has just appointed the veteran novelist Fay Weldon, 74, to be the chairman of its new creative writing MA. She told The Sunday Telegraph: "It is a growing industry. I don't think it is about being a name, what is important is having practical experience. "It is in the initial stages, when people have an idea but they don't quite know how to start, that you can help, making sure that they don't set out on a path that will be intolerably difficult." Weldon said that the potential of big financial rewards had generated interest in creative writing courses. "You do have to have some talent, but it is also possible to teach a craft," she added.

Britain's most celebrated creative writing course, at the University of East Anglia, was established in 1965 by the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury, the author of The History Man. He was succeeded by Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, who now heads the creative writing course at Royal Holloway, University of London. Now the novelists Michèle Roberts and Patricia Duncker run the UEA course, which has more than 400 applicants for 45 places.

The MA at Sheffield Hallam University is also oversubscribed. Run by Jane Rogers, the author of Mr Wroe's Virgins, it has on its staff Barry Hines, whose A Kestrel for a Knave was made into the film Kes. Oxford University launched its creative writing masters last year, which is run by Clare Morgan, a prize-winning novelist, short story writer and poet.

Such courses have produced high-profile success stories, including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Tracy Chevalier and Ali Smith, but not all graduates achieve such literary success. According to Russell Celyn Jones, a professor of creative writing at Birkbeck College, London, only one in five graduates goes on to be published. But even those who succeed can expect to earn as little as £15,000 per book, according to the Society of Authors.

She can't draw. She can't sing or dance. But she's always been able to sit in a corner and listen. And she has loved to read since she was 3 years old. "When you read all the time, language comes naturally to you," Susan Straight said by phone from her Riverside, Calif., home. Her most recent novel, "A Million Nightingales," traces the amazing life of a young slave girl growing up in Louisiana in the early 1800s.

Straight, who lives with her three daughters, teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. She does most of her writing by hand in little notebooks while sitting in the car waiting for one of her daughters. Then she does the rest in the evenings after her daughters are in bed. "Being a good listener is essential," Straight tells her students. In fact, she believes most writers are natural eavesdroppers. They work hard to learn "the natural rhythms of people's speech. You have to get the dialogue right."

As a lover of language, Straight also speaks French, Spanish and Swiss-German. She found it difficult, though, during her research trips, to be fluent in "Louisiana French," which has its own dialect. "Nightingales" is Straight's first historical novel, although she has written four previous books.

"Writers have to be promoters if they believe in their work. Blogs are a way for authors to communicate directly with readers and establish a personal connection. It's a way to reach readers who may not attend bookstore events, and it's more convenient for authors, too. I haven't met too many writers who were eager to fly to Houston for a day -- though I'm sure Houston is lovely this time of year."