Liz Fenwick kindly introduced me when I joined the novel racers recently but as we’re in an exciting new place I just wanted to say hello to everyone here too.
I decided that I wanted to be writer when I won a tin of chocolates in a competition at school. The chocolates felt like a big deal then and on bad days I sometimes wonder if I peaked too soon. However, apart from selling a couple of articles, I didn’t actually do anything about becoming a writer because I was too busy doing a ‘proper’ job. All this time I was writing books in my head and, except for a couple of failed Mills & Boons, that’s pretty much where they stayed even when I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
After a family bereavement I finally woke up to the fact that unless I took a professional approach to my writing I’d end up living half a life, always wondering what might have been. Last June I picked up the twenty thousand words of a typescript that I’d been mucking about with for years and sat down to finish it. In February I sent it to Hilary Johnson, who I’d met through the Romantic Novelists Association, for an appraisal by her Authors’ Advisory Service. Hilary passed the book to an agent and I’m nervously waiting for that outcome. Slight understatement – I’m going mad. So much so that my main contribution to the novel racers so far is to complain about the pain I’m in. I do intend to resume normal service as soon as I can get a grip. Especially as I need to get on with Novel 2.
In the meantime I’ve had non-fiction work published by Honno in an anthology, ‘Strange Days Indeed’ and now know the thrill of holding a proper book, to which I’ve contributed, in my hand!
I look forwards to reading what everyone else is up to and comparing notes.
I decided that I wanted to be writer when I won a tin of chocolates in a competition at school. The chocolates felt like a big deal then and on bad days I sometimes wonder if I peaked too soon. However, apart from selling a couple of articles, I didn’t actually do anything about becoming a writer because I was too busy doing a ‘proper’ job. All this time I was writing books in my head and, except for a couple of failed Mills & Boons, that’s pretty much where they stayed even when I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
After a family bereavement I finally woke up to the fact that unless I took a professional approach to my writing I’d end up living half a life, always wondering what might have been. Last June I picked up the twenty thousand words of a typescript that I’d been mucking about with for years and sat down to finish it. In February I sent it to Hilary Johnson, who I’d met through the Romantic Novelists Association, for an appraisal by her Authors’ Advisory Service. Hilary passed the book to an agent and I’m nervously waiting for that outcome. Slight understatement – I’m going mad. So much so that my main contribution to the novel racers so far is to complain about the pain I’m in. I do intend to resume normal service as soon as I can get a grip. Especially as I need to get on with Novel 2.
In the meantime I’ve had non-fiction work published by Honno in an anthology, ‘Strange Days Indeed’ and now know the thrill of holding a proper book, to which I’ve contributed, in my hand!
I look forwards to reading what everyone else is up to and comparing notes.
1 comment:
Chris get writing!!!! Thge post will arrive soon and you need to say I have another one othe go...seriously :-) BTW the news will be good when it arrives!
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