Breakthroughs in twos – my Caledonia journey

Things come in threes. Except when they don’t. Sometimes they come in twos.

Friday at the end of November 2018. The day the Caledonia Novel Award 2019 would announce their longlist. I’d taken the day off work to write. A rare luxury. Perhaps a step of faith. I couldn’t bear to be in the office because something told me this year I’d a chance. This year...  So. Confession. I entered the Caledonia Novel Award two times. 2018. 2019. With the same novel. Except it wasn’t.

If I’ve learnt anything in writing it’s that there’s always more to learn. The first year I entered, I submitted my first draft. (Yes, I really was that naive. It had a waffly prologue, an in-your-face spelling mistake on page 1 and I even got the genre wrong). Twelve months (six drafts?) later I gave it another shot. Why? Why not? By then I was a different writer. Evenings, weekends, grafting, googling, courses, networking – learning every which way I could how to self-edit. That’s why I’d taken the day off – I knew Guard Your Heart needed another spit and polish just in case...

The text bleeped sometime around lunch. Emma. Please tell me you’ve checked your emails? I hadn’t. I did. Aaaaahhhhhhhh! Mad pacing round the kitchen. Rechecking of the message multiple times. Remember to breathe. Aaaaahhhhhh! LONGLISTED!!!! Later the same day, driving through the Sperrin mountains, my mobile buzzed. In pitch black, with dodgy 4G and rain almost drowning out the call, the Irish Writers Centre told me I’d made the final of the Irish Novel Fair – a pitch event to agents and publishers. Two competitions.

That was the first day I knew Guard Your Heart had a sliver of hope of getting published. The first day I thought maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t completely insane to have embarked on novel writing with no roadmap. No training. No clue.

When the Caledonia Novel Award shortlisted me in January the hope sparked brighter.

On 15th February 2019 I was sat in the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin. The Irish Novel Fair and the Caledonia Novel Award culminated on the same day. Mad timing. Is it worth entering competitions? Absolutely. Do your research. Pick wisely. Submit.

Making the Caledonia shortlist was the perfect pitch to agents and publishers who were meeting me ‘blind’ in Dublin – a stamp of quality assurance that pulled me out of the slush pile. Competitions get you noticed. They can also boost your confidence – help you believe.

I’m an agented writer and Guard Your Heart, my YA début will be published in Spring 2021. There’s a sentence I never imagined writing.

On a Monday morning in April an email landed in my inbox from Laura Williams of Greene and Heaton. ‘I sat down this weekend to read your book, and I completely fell in love with it... I’d absolutely love to work with you.’

Truth be told, like many emerging writers, I was so used to rejections it actually took a day to sink in. What made it real was Laura’s passion for the book. She had a vision for it. Enthusiasm. After two-and-a-half years of working on Guard Your Heart from my living-room armchair, it was a relief to have someone who knows the industry say right, here’s how we get this over the line. By July she had two publishers interested. By August she’d secured me a book deal with Macmillan.

Meeting Rachel Petty, my editor, at Macmillan headquarters in London was surreal. Amazing. The reception had books from floor to ceiling, the floors on the lift were named after fonts. The conversation was books, books, books. Everyone was so encouraging. I never stopped smiling on the flight home to Derry. Finally it felt real – Guard Your Heart will be on shelves. People will read it. I hope they will fall in love with Aidan and Iona. I hope they will see that sometimes peace is harder than war. Sometimes reconciliation takes risk.

This is the point I remind you – the first time I entered my novel into a competition it was rejected. That was the best thing that could have happened to me as a writer. It forced me to learn. To think. To grow. I’m a single parent. I work full time. The stereotype says these dreams don’t happen. Stuff stereotypes.

There’s a final two. It’s a two book deal. The title of the next one’s hidden in this blog but that’s about all I’ve written yet, so excuse me – I’m off to hibernate, scribble and type.