Word Up

Gosh, I’m here, I’ve finally done it.

I’ve written a novel.

It feels good to say that.

Which is perhaps somewhat odd because I’ve been a professional writer since the age of 17.

I’ve written for newspapers and magazines, written TV and radio ads, written web site copy – even ghost written Twitter posts, but there is nothing like creating an entire universe out of words – inventing people who lived lives before you ‘discovered’ them and will go on having lives after the final page has been turned.

It’s a bit like being God when you think about it:

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’

One word spoken and the whole universe came into being.

One word written and a universe  comes into being over the course of 96,000 odd words.

No wonder so many people want to become authors. It’s exhilarating!

Then it’s scary.

Perhaps my novel sucks. Perhaps no one will like it.

God might have the confidence to create the universe with no reference to anyone but Himself, but I’m not God.

I don’t know whether my grandmother will like it, she admits to getting confused if a novel introduces more than three people.

I’m not sure if some of my friends will like it because it’s a little spicier than what they’d normally read.

Thank goodness for my husband though.

He’s not God either, but he is a writer too and we’ve been working on and off together for longer than we’ve been married, so any trust and honesty issues about our critiquing each other’s work have long been addressed.

What a man. He’s volunteered to be my proofreader and editor.

Did you know that it is a little known fact that most men will not admit to reading romance novels?

Well, he liked it and held me to account when some of the plot developments didn’t make sense.

Three marvellous judges from the Romance Writers of Australia liked it enough for it to be short listed for the 2013 Emerald Awards for best unpublished manuscript.

One publishing company liked it well enough to want to see the full manuscript.

We’ll see if other publishers like it too.

Thank you for staying with me this far and I hope you will continue to join me on the journey from ‘professional writer, amateur author’ to ‘professional writer, published novellist’.

I can promise that future posts will be a little less self-indulgent but hopefully no less fun.

I’d like to share not only my literary journey, but also some interesting background to my first novel Moonstone Obsession, a historical romance set in the turbulent times of late 18th century England, something of my second novel  – a work-in-progress set in the late 11th century as well as posts on love, romance, writing, music and food.

I hope we can get to know one another and if you have a desire to become an author or are already a published writer, then I would be honoured to throw open my doors for guest posters.