After taking voluntary redundancy from a high profile job in the NHS, my intention was to look around for a part-time job locally in nursing. I decided to give myself the summer off and whilst walking up and down the seafront each day for my morning exercise, I came up with the idea of writing a novel. Each day I would sit and watch the tide turn, dreaming up characters, and then rush home and type them up before they completely disappeared from my mind.
The first novel took almost a year to complete before even finding an editor to take me on. Thankfully I did and it soon became apparent there was “a lot of work to be done.” But I persevered with everything he suggested and self-published my first novel, For the Love of Emily. I had to learn all the tools to market which was a significant challenge for me as due to my high profile job – I wasn’t even on Facebook! But I quickly grasped it taking advantage of the many offers of help. The book community really are fabulous and supportive. I’d entered a completely new world which I can’t ever imagine not being in now. With their help, I launched my book and it did relatively well for a new author. But after an initial flurry, sales diminished. I went on local radio and TV and also did several book signing in local cafes. Although being visible increased my sales – I still needed more.
I proceeded to write that second book Knight & Dey (authors advised this was necessary to increase sales), and initially, it did do exactly that. But even though it raised my profile, it was still ‘work in progress’. But then I got lucky. I was invited one evening to a local book club to talk about my writing, and it was a delight to explain to the ladies about my journey from nursing to author. I must have done okay as before I knew it, I was asked to attend other local venue to speak. It soon snowballed and I developed the talk and included more humour to amuse the audience (From Bedpan to Pen!) and before I knew it, I was getting booked up most weeks by various WI’s, as an after lunch/dinner speaker, and other book clubs. The added bonus of the speaking events was the paperback books I sold once I’d finished my talk. The audiences were so keen to support me by buying a book, which was lovely. So, while I wasn’t racing up the Amazon charts with digital books like many authors, I was doing really well with paperback sales. My initial books were romance with a few twists and turns along the way, however, there was a large amount of adult content in them and it became apparent that I was losing some potential sales because of this.
I must just add, making money from selling books is not my greatest objective – my goal is for more readers enjoying the stories I’ve written. Any author will say that is primarily why they write. That said, of course the royalties are nice, but personally, I’m not looking for a holiday home in the Caribbean on the strength of those!
So, with the attention of attracting a larger readership (particularly at my public speaking events), I decided I’d write a psychological thriller (Who’s Smiling Now?) to ensure there would be a book to suit everyone’s taste. To my amazement it did really well despite me launching it just before we went into lockdown last year. The book still had an element of romance in it, but no adult content. And because of its success, I decided to try and write another crime/romance and the result is my new novel ‘Getting Away with Murder’.
I think the change in genre has been a positive one as I have since been signed with Dark Edge Press to write two books for them which I’m thrilled about. It will be interesting to see the contrast between independently publishing and traditional publishing.
Getting Away with Murder is a book is about two women who both love the same man. They are complete opposites. One is a happily married woman (Claire) with a ten year old boy, and her family is her whole focus. The other (Annabelle) is a wealthy career driven woman with a life based on achieving success in both her work and private life.
I wrote this book last year during lockdown – what else was there to do? I carefully constructed each character - one was easy to do, while the other was more difficult as she is so complex.
My goal is for the reader to be rooting for one of the women and disliking the other. Let’s hope I’ve succeeded – the proof of the pudding and all that . . . !
Getting Away with Murder by Joy Wood
Annabelle is Max Maric’s lover. She’s a wealthy widow and is all set to marry him, just as soon as he’s divorced. Her life will then be perfect. Or so she thinks.
One man, two women, but they can’t both have him.
And he doesn’t get to choose – the schizophrenic decides, with a sophisticated plan to eradicate her nemesis in the most heinous of ways.
The intended victim needs a friend. Fortunately, she has a new one she’s become close to.
But nobody told her that false friends are worse than open enemies.
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