I’m very pleased to welcome Donna Maria McCarthy as my guest author today. Donna is the author of the soon to be released The Hangman’s Hitch, described on Amazon.co.uk as,

“The inn at the end of your world.
Where satanic practice is the order
And your soul required to pay for your stay…”

Here, Donna describes her journey to publication.

SERENDIPITY

Two years ago, or there about, I finished what I believed to be an accomplished piece of work, The Hangman’s Hitch, and after encouragement decided to see what the publishing world would make of it.

Initially I realised that it would need revising to be submission ready, which I did, although being so green to the process it added a further three months to the wait!

Submissions themselves were sometimes gruelling, sometimes eye opening and on fortunate days, encouraging! in fact I found that some even had me draw positives from negatives, rejections can sometimes be tempered with praise and useful advice from the most aspirational of sources. All is not as harrowing as a newbie might be lead to believe.

Fast forward twelve months and with another novel brewing and my time took up between work and submissions, I felt a harsh decision needed to be made, to shelve ‘The Hangman’s Hitch’ and move on with my new idea.

One last ditched attempt, I thought, as’ Britain’s Next Bestseller’ came up on a search I was deleting, why not! It felt right, strangely as though I had been waiting for that very moment, and no nerves…I never trust nerves… so I submitted and before long was contacted by Murielle Maupoint, the company founder, asking if I would like to embark on a campaign with BNBS, saying that she thought my book had enormous potential!

Of course I accepted! Not only because the concept was new and exciting but also because I found Murielle very personable and approachable, once again that thought, ‘This just feels right’.

Throughout the whole process BNBS were in regular contact with me and the encouragement I received was not only pertinent at the time, for it has made me a far more confident person now and so cleverly administered that I didn’t notice myself changing.

I now have a full contract with BNBS and for me, personally, will always endeavour to retain them as my publisher. They have opened the world up to me, inspired me, made me laugh and introduced me to so many good friends through social media, something I had never been interested in before.

It seems right, at this point, to introduce the lady herself with a few words from her on what has inspired her to work so tirelessly, 24/7 sometimes, with her BNBS authors and hopefuls, and her hopes for the future.

“There is such phenomenal writing talent in the UK. Britain’s Next Bestseller gives authors the opportunity to land a publishing deal based on whether readers like the book or not. We believe this is the way forward to discover fantastic new books that can be bestsellers of the future. What drives me is my passion to empower people to achieve their dreams. By removing some of the major barriers new authors face in pursuing their writing ambitions I believe we are making a real difference… plus we have built a buzzing family of authors who all support and guide one another to succeed. There are friendships that have been made between authors on Britain’s Next Bestseller that I know will last a lifetime. It’s a feel-good business and every time we help an author achieve their dreams it puts a huge smile on my face and fuels me to keep going.”

I can vouch personally for all of the above, and more, Murielle is truly a remarkable lady and I wish I had half her energy!

Lastly, on that word, Serendipity, a lucky chance or magical happenstance? For me, it perfectly sums up the last twelve months of my life.

You can find Donna on  social media:
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The Hangman’s Hitch is due for release on 8th April 2016 and can be pre-ordered here.

 

 

 

I’m very pleased to welcome Audrina Lane as my guest author this week. The Heart Trilogy by Audrina Lane is currently available on Amazon UK and US.

Today, Audrina explains how and what inspired her to write and publish three novels.

Childhood Fairy Tales to Book Boyfriends

It was only meant to satisfy my sudden craving to write a book, well that’s not quite true it was an ambition I’d held since I was a teenager but until the age of 40 loomed on the landscape I’d never took the time to see if I could. I’d been a voracious reader ever since my Nan read all the classics to me as a child. I went through the looking glass with Alice, tended goats with Heidi and fell in love with Laurie in Little Women. But my favourite character was Jo, the ambitious writer. My first jottings were short stories for my younger sisters that I would read aloud to them, my favourite being “The Return of Mr Tibbs” about a cat returning as a ghost to tell the children where his body was so they could bury him beneath his favourite apple tree.

Skip a few years and my world fell apart at age seventeen. My first love called a day on our relationship, we’d been together since I was fifteen, and I was completely devastated. He had taught me everything and never questioned the person I was or wanted to become in a way he still is my soul mate despite the twenty-five years that have passed. So two years later I started to write out all my frustrations at his betrayal as well as all my memories of the good times we’d shared. The book was called “Take my Breath Away” title taken from the song and the fact that it had been “our song”

I was so obsessed that I wrote it in under a month, I kept my notebook under the counter at work and just wrote whenever the shop was quiet. Then I spent hours at my Mum’s typewriter transferring the written words and it was finished – all 30,000 words of first love and anguish. I shared it with a friend’s teenage daughter as I’d written it in a similar style to “Forever” by Judy Blume. I was thrilled when she returned it and wrote me a letter saying that she loved the book and my character Stephanie and that it had made her cry in places. I wish I still had that letter because the thrill of it was beyond measure. But then what? The story was my baby, it was filled with my memories and I just couldn’t bear the thought of sending it off to a publisher and being told it was rubbish! So I placed it in a box file and it moved house three times until I found it again in 2013 – the year of the big 40.

I read it through and cringed but also thought it still made a good story but how to bring it up to date when it was firmly set in the 1980s a time before mobile phones, a time when long-distance romance involved writing letters? So with fingers poised over the keys of my laptop, I began my first ever novel. I wanted it to be relevant now but still remember the 80’s so I set it in 2012 but included diary entries from 1988. To take me back in time I compiled a playlist of all my favourite 80’s songs and with the music, all the memories tumbled back. Again I was obsessed, every free moment I was tapping away on the keyboard turning my fond memories into a story that I hoped would be relevant for all ages 16-60!

It had the joys and fears of first love brought to life through Stephanie’s diary (yes I kept my heroine’s name) and juxtaposed it with her teenage daughter Charlotte’s experience as she meets and falls in love for the first time.

When I pressed publish on Amazon I sat back and felt both satisfied but nervous. Would my friends who had vowed they would buy and read it actually like it? Would they see me in Stephanie and guess that it was about my own experiences. Would my first boyfriend mind that I had used his name for the hero? Waiting for the first review was nerve-racking, but when it appeared two weeks later I was thrilled – 5 stars but who was Viper?? I asked everyone I knew but it was none of them. The reviewer had picked up the Top Gun film references in the book and I knew that Viper was a call sign for the instructor in the film, believe me, I’ve watched that film a million times!

Then the penny dropped, a message was blinking on my Facebook page from a name I’d never forgotten. He’d been flattered by my memories of our relationship and I think kind of liked the idea of being a romantic hero in a novel. Then he asked me the question “What happens next?” Even I hadn’t thought of that, could there be a next? I mulled the idea over and then as more reviews appeared and more readers started to ask the same question I thought I might just write some more. So the first story spawned two more and I cried as I pressed THE END on the final book in the trilogy I’d been on such a journey with my characters and entered the realm of ‘what if.’

Well, the journey has been a long and fun one, three books in three years and guess what number four is in progress. It’s called “Bloodstained Heart” and I am hoping to publish it in June of this year. Then perhaps I can move away from the characters of my Heart Trilogy and begin to breathe life into new characters, in new places with new stories to tell.

Audrina is currently working on her fourth novel “Bloodstained Heart.”
Find Audriana on social media:
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