Share your writing success stories. If you subscribe to Writing Magazine and would like to feature here, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

A voice in the darkness

‘Owl at Midnight is my first novel, although I have written a non-fiction book, a few short stories and articles over the years,’ writes subscriber Patricia Lennan.

‘Completing a novel had always been my ambition but like many of us, life and commitments to work and family had to take priority.

‘When I moved to Anglesey (Ynys Môn) in the 1980s I discovered that I had an uncle (sadly then passed away) who had lived in the house which was considered to be the court of the very last true Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. His wife Eleanor de Montfort died giving birth to their daughter Gwenllian.

‘I stood in the room where this sad event was said to have happened and learnt that Gwenllian was taken a year later, after the slaughter of her father, to a convent in Lincolnshire. History tells us that she stayed imprisoned there for the rest of her life.

‘This really inspired me and I think this was where my story was born. It was quite a few years later though when I began to research the life of this family and all the historical background. We live in an area here on Anglesey which is rich in living history myths and legends and this was a fascinating journey.

‘A lot of work lay ahead me however, but I was determined to carry on. I never wanted my epitaph to read “She never wrote that novel”. On a serious note though, very little had been written about Gwenllian and I really felt that her voice needed to be heard. Very little is known about her at all so much of the manuscript had to be my own interpretation and imagination blended with historical fact.

‘I was very lucky to be in Waterstones in Northampton (where I was born) one day several years ago and met Jenny Knowles from Little Knoll Press who became interested in my project and later agreed to publish the book. She was a great help to me and we worked together to shape and edit the book and the rest, as they say, is history.’

Tip-top tea time

Like many other readers of Writing Magazine, I’ve written stories for as long as I can remember,’ writes subscriber Jane Lacey-Crane.

‘I have the obligatory drawer full of notes, scraps of paper and half-finished novels. But inevitably life would always get in the way of writing. Work, family, bills and a healthy dose of fear, would all conspire to keep me away from completing anything. I cite fear as a factor because I think sheer terror at the idea of having completed something and then sharing it with the world, paralysed me for a long time. Eventually I realised that unless I put my words out there in the world, I would never know if I had what it took to become a published author.