Sobbing and Cheering
It has been quite a week. Last Thursday I gave a talk to The Golden Triangle Girls Women’s Institute group - of which I’m a member - on the topic of: My life as a writer, and the role my life has played in my writing. And on Saturday morning, I woke up to discover that, while I was asleep, my novel Five Winters had won a Star Award from the Women’s Fiction Writers Association!
The Women’s Fiction Writers Association is so important to me. I’ve made some amazing friends through being a member, and I wouldn’t have my agent if I’d never joined, because she found me via a pitch event organised by the WFWA.
So I was thrilled to win the Star Award, as I’m sure you can imagine. Emotional too. In fact, I’ll admit to shedding more than a few tears. Winning an award like this is validation, I guess, for all the years of hard work. It’s humbling and extremely gratifying to know that readers have enjoyed your book; that your characters have spoken to them, entertained them. That you’ve kept them up at night reading your words.
As I told the Golden Triangle Girls, Five Winters is packed full of experiences and emotions from my life. The main character, Beth, is not me at all. But, during the course of the novel, she deals with some of the same issues I’ve dealt with myself over the years. Unrequited love (happily a long time ago now)! A strong yearning to have a family. The need to pick yourself up and make a new start when things go wrong.
I’ve heard that, when they’re preparing for a role, actors search their memories for a time when they felt the same emotions as their character - it’s the same with writing, or at least, it is for me.
If you’re a writer, nothing in your life needs to be wasted! I once had a dog who liked to race trains if I walked him near a railway line - in the book. At my mother’s funeral, one of the pall bearers was shorter than the others, which made the coffin feel alarmingly precarious - in the book. I was once a part-time stepmother to two girls who resented me - you’ve guessed it - in the book. Nothing is exactly the same as in real life, but the core of the experience - the sadness, the panic, the laughter - can be used to sweep your reader along with you.
My next novel, Closest Kept, is equally emotional. Like Beth in Five Winters, my main character, Lily, has a strong friendship that plays an important part in her life. But things change, and the future suddenly looks as uncertain for Lily as the past she does her level best to forget. Closest Kept is available to pre-order now! Published on 6th May 2025.
The Women’s Fiction Writers Association is so important to me. I’ve made some amazing friends through being a member, and I wouldn’t have my agent if I’d never joined, because she found me via a pitch event organised by the WFWA.
So I was thrilled to win the Star Award, as I’m sure you can imagine. Emotional too. In fact, I’ll admit to shedding more than a few tears. Winning an award like this is validation, I guess, for all the years of hard work. It’s humbling and extremely gratifying to know that readers have enjoyed your book; that your characters have spoken to them, entertained them. That you’ve kept them up at night reading your words.
As I told the Golden Triangle Girls, Five Winters is packed full of experiences and emotions from my life. The main character, Beth, is not me at all. But, during the course of the novel, she deals with some of the same issues I’ve dealt with myself over the years. Unrequited love (happily a long time ago now)! A strong yearning to have a family. The need to pick yourself up and make a new start when things go wrong.
I’ve heard that, when they’re preparing for a role, actors search their memories for a time when they felt the same emotions as their character - it’s the same with writing, or at least, it is for me.
If you’re a writer, nothing in your life needs to be wasted! I once had a dog who liked to race trains if I walked him near a railway line - in the book. At my mother’s funeral, one of the pall bearers was shorter than the others, which made the coffin feel alarmingly precarious - in the book. I was once a part-time stepmother to two girls who resented me - you’ve guessed it - in the book. Nothing is exactly the same as in real life, but the core of the experience - the sadness, the panic, the laughter - can be used to sweep your reader along with you.
My next novel, Closest Kept, is equally emotional. Like Beth in Five Winters, my main character, Lily, has a strong friendship that plays an important part in her life. But things change, and the future suddenly looks as uncertain for Lily as the past she does her level best to forget. Closest Kept is available to pre-order now! Published on 6th May 2025.
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