THREE MONTHS ON …

It’s just three months since my first novel was published, Fighting Back by Julia Bayer – my mother’s name.

Although I could write a novel, I had no idea how to market the book or myself as an author. As a former journalist it should have been easy, but it wasn’t. It felt like I was just showing off. But then people started contacting me after they had read my book.

I really was surprised, shocked even, to think that people liked my book – and were demanding more.

I had old friends, even from schooldays, write to me saying they were gripped by my novel. I had previous work colleagues get in touch and relatives from far and near asking for more.

To me writing my book was just something that happened accidentally. I fell over on a skiing holiday and spent the rest of the week in the hotel. I was bored so started writing on scraps of paper and serviettes. By the end of the week, I had more than 40 bits of paper in my room and the words were pouring out.

I was working full time then so only dipped into more chapters when I had time – usually on my boat. It took me a couple of years and then I contacted a few literary agents and publishers to see if they would be interested in taking me on as a new author.

I probably had half a dozen refusals, so the project was shelved for about eight years. I just assumed it was not good enough so left it on a spare hard drive.

It wasn’t until the first Covid lockdown that it resurfaced. My daughter, Stef, nagged me to do something with my book (she had read it as a Word document years before), so I contacted a couple of publishers and hey presto, one said yes.

It was another 18 months with proof reading and more proof reading before I hit the button to say ‘yes, all correct.’
Caption: It never ceases to surprise me when I see people reading my book – even if she is my daughter.

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