We didn't have much money and rarely managed a meal without being interrupted by the shop door bell during the long hours the shop was open. Yet we were a close family and always seemed to be happy and content with our lot. Once a year we'd close the shop and go off on holiday for a week to Scotland or North Wales. It took us all year to save up for it, but even if we'd stayed at home there would have been no trade. The cotton towns were empty and silent during these wakes weeks.
Writing: I tried anything and everything. Short stories, serials, a children’s novel, picture scripts and a couple of Mills & Boon contemporaries, although I gained more rejection slips than cheques. The aim was to send material out faster than it came back, which wasn't easy. We had a brilliant postal service and all the rejections would come bouncing back with remarkable speed. But at last the day came when I sold my first short story to D.C.Thompson. It was a red letter day indeed. That was also the name of the magazine, now defunct. Following this breakthrough I seemed to develop the knack, or my luck changed, for I went on to sell many more stories to My Weekly, People’s Friend, and My Story magazine. With renewed confidence I tried again for Mills & Boon, this time with a historical, Madeiran Legacy, which was accepted. (reprinted as Wine and Roses by Severn House) I wrote four more of these and only then did I have sufficient confidence to try for the mainstream fiction market, selling Luckpenny Land to Hodder & Stoughton in 1993 on a fantastic three book contract.
Interview - Levante Lifestyle Nov 2006 Interview with Euro Weekly (pdf file)
Click here to sign up for my Quarterly Newsletter
|