I wrote my first complete novel at 44 when a friend bullied me into it. Bored of hearing me say I wanted to do it, she told me to write a chapter a week and send it to her. Clocking in with her was a great incentive to keep going. But at 30,000 words, I panicked, realised I didn’t know what I was doing, and bought a useful book called How to Write, by Harry Bingham. It helped; in fact, it even told me I would probably panic when I got to 30,000 words.

I never published that book (read my first blog to find out why), but a year later I wrote Space Hopper. Seventeen agents rejected me over three months, so I gave up, cried a lot and eventually got over it. Then a bit of fate intervened in the form of my ex-husband’s wife, Sarah, who had read Space Hopper before I even submitted it to agents. Months after giving up, I received a message from her saying I just read a book that makes me feel a bit like your book did. That’s nice, I thought. But then I checked the book out, discovered who the agent was and sent it to her with no expectations at all (except rejection). However, Judith Murray, at Greene and Heaton, loved it.

Cutting the story short: Judith became my agent and secured me a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster (S&S) after it had gone to auction with Pan MacMillan.

I wrote the second book in the two-book deal within four months, and my agent and UK publisher loved it, but ultimately, about six months later, it was turned down by the American side of S&S, it just didn’t have the vibe they wanted to publish at the time. I was shocked, having thought for ages that it was in the bag, however they adored one of the characters, so I suggested a new novel all about her. It received praise (and it’s one of my favourites), but sadly, three of my novels were turned down before I hit upon Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life. It just seems to be the kind of story and character the world needs.

Coming next – coming soon - will be a novel that I’ve carried with me a long time. It’s a story that has percolated for years, bubbling in the background, even while I wrote and completed other novels. I’m quite a fast writer but this one just spilled out of me in record time once I’d started, and feels like it’s very much a part of my soul. Where Space Hopper centres on the connection between an adult daughter and her mother, and Joe Nuthin has a grown-up-son-and-mother relationship at its core, my next novel is centred around an adult son and his father. I didn’t plan for this pattern, but there it is. I’ll update you on things like the cover reveal for the new book, what it’s about and when it will be available, as soon as I’m able to.