Having retired from teaching, I have spent much of my spare time writing, hopefully learning from my mistakes and discovering how much I enjoy the writing process, despite its many frustrations. I have been successful in several competitions, mainly in writing Flash Fiction, and my play, "So Quick", was performed by Progress Theatre in Reading.
Some years ago, I entered a competition asking for a "three hundred-word synopsis of a novel in any genre", which was adjudicated by the literary agent, Simon Trewin. Mine was the outline of a police procedural entitled "Home To Roost".
I won, and Simon Trewin's critique was so encouraging that I have spent much of the intervening time writing and re-writing the 100,000 words that now comprise the finished novel.
Except that it isn't: through Page Turner, I asked for a critique of work by an agent, and having initially been bitter, twisted and resentful of the outcome, I then decided she had a point. Or several points, and as a result, have started re-writing it again.
I am seventy-one and would dearly love to be published before my body or mind fails me. If "Home to Roost" were to be accepted for publication, I think I have learnt enough to produce at least two more books in a series featuring the same three main characters over the course of three years.
