Caitlin asked me the other day when I first dreamed of being an author… I’ve been drawing and writing ever since I could pick up a pencil, and I used to staple ‘book’ pages together when I was a little girl. I even have a little notebook containing a long story and my own illustrations written at 12 and treasured, though I cringe when I read it now!
Writing has been my life…my escape and my fantasy…I adore words and love exploring my imagination.
Eleven years ago, when Cait was a baby I began reading ‘Harry Potter’ and thought I could do this…so I began putting pen to paper. Within a year I had written my first novel, a dragon filled children’s adventure, my own children listened intently and loved it, four years later and two sequels had been completed.
Then I spent several years getting rejected from publishers and agents. I even paid for a highly recommended critique service to help hone the novel. We worked well and the changes I made were well received, but ultimately they told me most publishers had closed lists and weren’t taking on any new authors, (despite their advertising) and that book reading was taking a downturn…Agents told me the same thing, they loved the book, but couldn’t take anyone on.
It is a completely demoralising process…where the only way to succeed is if the book is sent at the right time, to the right person…and how do you know when that is or who that is?
I’m not blowing my own trumpet…the books may just not be good enough, but I can only rely on the feedback I’ve personally had, and the old adage…don’t give up!
So a couple of years ago I put away my fantasy adventures, (for now) and worked on a new idea…out of it came ‘Beneath the Rainbow’:
‘Death is an inevitable fact of life, indifferent to whether you are seven-years-old, or an old age pensioner who has lived a long fulfilled life. This is the heart-breaking and uplifting tale of Freya. Freya has to come to terms with her own untimely death and the impending death of terminally ill Old Thomas, who has but one dream left to achieve… Freya’s story of grief, hope, ultimate fulfilment and joy.’
The first line of the book invaded my head and I had to go with it… ‘Freya was seven-year-old when she got hit by the car. It was a 4×4 with a bull bar.’ The book goes on to deal with grief and bereavement on both sides of the veil. Freya has to adjust to death and the life she finds after it and her family have to accept and learn how to deal with the loss of their oldest daughter.
When Freya and members of her family discover Thomas, dying of cancer, they learn that dreams are important, they learn that we must live life to the full and dreams help us do just that…
‘Beneath the Rainbow’ came from my heart and spilled into my life and it was suggested that I try Amazon’s Kindle publishing.
And remember you don’t need a Kindle to buy and download it…on the right of the Amazon page you can download a free Kindle program to your PC…
So here we are in ebook form…
It is, technically, a dream come true to see the book available to purchase…but my greatest wish is for people to enjoy the story, to escape into Freya’s world and share time with her…
I am both elated and terrified to see it in print…I love the book, my husband cried when he read it to the children, but the true test is how it is received by the general public…
So I would love to know what you think of it…and maybe, just maybe, one day it will end up in paper print on a bookshop shelf…
That is my dream…
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