My path to publication

Whilst writing the first draft of my novel I won an award from The Royal Literary Fund which provided me with a mentor. This was a tremendous boost to my confidence as the award was very competitive. I’d never embarked on a novel before and writing it was a steep learning curve. I thought that having won this award that I would easily get it published, but in fact it took me two years and a fine collection of rejection letters before I found an independent publisher who took me on very quickly. 

Throughout my search for a publisher firstwriter.com was an invaluable resource, and I located many of the agents I sent my work to via this source. Five agents that I located throughfirstwriter.com asked for the full manuscript. Even though they all rejected me, they each gave me valuable feedback. I have also had my short stories published and all of the magazines and publishers were found through firstwriter.com. 

Writing a novel is hard enough, but trying to get published can be a truly demoralising business. I just kept going and I would advise any other writer to do the same. I think firstwriter.com is actually the best writing resource there is as far as websites go. I particularly like the way firstwriter.com allow their members to have control over which alerts they receive. And through the links on firstwriter.com I have contacted Romance Writers United, who are going to write a review of my novel. 

The Eloquence of Desire 

Set in the 1950s and located in London and Colonial Malaysia, The Eloquence of Desire focuses on the social constraints of the 1950s and how they influenced family relationships. George and his wife Dorothy are re-located to Malaysia after an affair is discovered between George and his boss’s daughter, Emma, but George cannot forget her. Malaysia was involved in a civil war; George inadvertently becomes involved with the insurgency. Susan, their daughter, discovers the truth about her parents’ relationship and starts to self-harm as her way of coping.