WARNING AND DISCLAIMER (1)

If you get into the world of writing you need to be aware of a few things

1) most likely is that the stuff you have written is rubbish
2) your friends and family will either lie or associate the stories with you and so like them even if they are rubbish
3) probably someone has done the same stuff as you before
4) even if you are good, the liklihood is you won't get published - I would guess that around 99.999999% of books aren't published
5) even if you do get published, there's a 99% chance that you will not make enough money to be able to give up your job.

My own stuff is probably rubbish and likely to fail. I work on the principle that it's something I enjoy doing - you've got to have a hobby! However, I do take my hobbies seriously - this thing won't fail for want of effort on my part.

so - I'd recommend two books - On Writing by Stephen King and From Pitch to Publication by Carole Blake
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pitch-Publication-Everything-Novel-Published/dp/0333714350/sr=8-1/qid=1171130918/ref=pd_ka_1/026-5618255-4622817?ie=UTF8&s=books

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Stephen-King/dp/0340820462/sr=1-1/qid=1171130996/ref=sr_1_1/026-5618255-4622817?ie=UTF8&s=books

for the record I think Stephen King is harsh on adverbs, but I don't use them either because my stories have around 7 words a page!!!

I don't think you need any more than this.

One thing I have which you might not is that I've sold ads to the publishing industry in the UK for about 7 years. I know a lot of people from publishing companies and if you talk to them you get a really good feel for how astonishingly hard it is to get successfully published and what you might have to do to acheive your goals.