I loved writing stories as a child – dreadful Famous Five fan-fiction – but I wanted be a farmer’s wife when I grew up. (The type that fed baby lambs in the kitchen while churning butter, obvs.) I stopped writing as a teen but, over the years, I talked about writing a book. Get around to it one day… when work calmed down, when I had a baby (surely I could write a book and do a PhD while it napped!) when the kids were at school, when I retired, when, when, when…

Then work went quiet and one of my friends called me out. Instead of moaning about my bank balance, now was the time to hit the keyboard. I had no excuse…

And so, I started writing. I wrote the book in fits and starts depending on my workload – because, of course, work picked up big time – never really believing I would finish it. I made every mistake known to mankind, trying to get it right before it was written (painstakingly polishing passages that didn’t even make the final cut) and then sending it out to agents as soon as I’d finished the first draft. I don’t think it really had a plot. Let alone a narrative arc!

I was lucky enough to get some very generous and positive rejections from agents and so I set about working out what the book was really about and redrafting it. Meanwhile I had joined the Twitter community and started to find out that fellow writers really are the most generous and lovely bunch. A bunch of us formed the Literary Lovelies – LLs – an online message group that encourages, supports and mops up the tears when things don’t go to plan. Even though I’m always warning my teens to be wary of people they meet online, the LLs have turned out to be wonderful friends in real life too!

Anyway, a couple of drafts later, I started submitting my manuscript again and, this time, I was lucky enough to have a little flurry of interest from agents. I chose to sign with Felicity Trew from the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency and I couldn’t be happier with my choice. Felicity is advocate, enabler, co-conspirator and therapist all in one and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.