It’s taken quite a long time to arrive at the point of having a published novel. This first one, Like Me, is set in 2008, which gives you an idea of how long this urge to write has been going on… There were previous stories as well, including an attempt at a Mills & Boon, about Laura, a young video producer, who meets the bass guitarist of a very successful pop group. The hero was not based on John Taylor of Duran Duran, honest.
I wrote a lot of Like Me around looking after my small children, taking notebooks along to scribble in, during my son’s swimming lesson, my daughter’s ballet class. I did a couple of year-long creative writing courses with the Open University, and as well as experimenting with lots of different types of creative writing, worked on this novel, and another, which turns out to be book four of this series (and discovered I’m writing a series!)
Life took over for a number of years—teenage children, working full-time—until I decided to prioritise writing again by doing The Novel Studio course at City, University of London. It meant travelling more than an hour across London twice a week, so it was quite a time commitment, but it was incredibly worthwhile and useful. It now runs online, so you could do it from anywhere…
I also met wonderful fellow writers who are a talented, enthusiastic and supportive bunch: here are Laurence, Labeja, Lara, Sonia, and me reuniting for a catch-up...
At the end of that course, the fourteen students held a showcase where we invited lots of literary agents and each read a short extract of our writing. I loved it. I had interest from three agents and signed with one. My dream of becoming a published novelist actually seemed possible…
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