A Novel
On one of my previous blog posts, I had mentioned I had started a podcast along with a friend about our experiences and struggles with trying to become authors. During that time, I was finalising my novel (my first novel!) and now I can say I have finished it!
I started this book over ten years ago, when I was so bored in an office job that I needed to escape into something creative on my weekends. It was also at that time I was transitioning from Australia to the Orkney Isles, so in some ways i wanted to capture moving to a new place and starting from scratch again - with all the things that come along with that like looking for a house, a job, learning new routines, meeting people and just getting into the rhythm of living on a remote island. So I wrote a fiction novel about a girl hitting 30 and making a life altering choice to leave her drab sad life in the city, to do something impulsive and live in on an island. I wanted to make it about a normal girl, someone who faces the very normal realities like many of us already do. The book looks at all the fun and games with moving to a new place, as well as follow my main character’s inner feelings of suppressed grief that finally comes to the surface, making her realise that she may have a deeper connection to the island than she had first thought. There is also a handsome love interest in there too.
But I’m so happy to say that after all those years, after I stopped writing and took a break for years, I finally have finished it and feel good about the novel.
A wee bit about it:
Cat has been living her life in a daydream, escaping her dead-end job and unloving boyfriend, she finds herself stuck in life and does not know how that even happened? Rather than face the prospect of being sacked from her job, Cat gives up on her city life for a fresh start on a remote island to reinvent herself.
Could Cat finally be getting her life in order? Unlocking her passion for art, things have never felt better, until the handsome musician Patrick comes along undoing all Cat's good work on changing her life, just when things were going so well.
Suppressing her feelings has never worked out well for Cat, given that her past still haunts her, making her see that maybe, her connection to the island runs deeper than she first thought.
Could Cat's past finally be catching up to her? And can she unlock her own secrets and learn to love again?
So there is a lot more to do, I will try the whole “traditional” side of things, which means approaching agents and publishers to see if there is any interest. And if that does not work out, (i will try not to take it personally and think of all the successful authors who were rejected by agents at first!!!) I will go down the “indie” publishing route, which means i organise everything - from distribution to the book cover! And make the book available to readers myself.
So here’s to a new adventure, another path leading to…I don’t know where!
but that’s the spice of life right? The surprise!
L x