I've been experimenting with The Gender Genie, a very clever little online thingy (that's a technical term) which is able to analyse a piece of text and tell you whether the author is male or female. It sounds unlikely, but the darn thing seems to work.

First I entered one of my short stories... it declared the author male. Then one of my blog entries... again male. Then I set about some recent e-mails I've received...

Lisa is female.
Marie is female.
Helen is female.

Thank goodness for that. None of my friends are cross-dressers.

Mick Kitson of The Senators was certified male. As was my Dad.

So by this point the Gender Genie had proved itself to be scarily infallible. Whereupon I entered a recent e-mail from my Big Sis...

Male.

Oh my god, my sister's a bloke. I wonder if her boyfriend knows? Although, once you start thinking about it, you realise the signs were there.

Most encouraging though, is that I entered a scene from Act Two of Be Worth It which featured ONLY female characters, and it came back as... FEMALE! Hurrah! So it's official - I can write convincing female dialogue at the drop of a hat. I should get a job on Footballers' Wives. They could do with a bit of convincing dialogue of some description.