SUBSCRIBER SPOTLIGHT
Share your writing success stories. If you subscribe to Writing Magazine and would like to feature here, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk
Elemental attraction
‘Fire & Ice is a book written straight from my heart,’ writes subscriber Sonia Bellhouse.
‘I’ve written a few books, typically following a popular trend or reflecting something that I felt that I “ought” to write but none of these was seen through to publication. This all changed, however, when I began writing the story that I, myself, wanted to read.
‘I was watching the ice dancing at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on television and was drawn to the way the skaters express emotion through facial expressions and gestures. As I learnt more about ice dancing I gained an insight into how partnerships between dancing couples develop, perfect I thought for a special romance to evolve.
‘I had the idea of one skater being from Australia, where I now live. I liked the idea of the other skater being Norwegian – Norway was a place I had visited and had some knowledge about. Initially, I had a story set in the present, but I’ve always been fascinated with Viking history, especially since there are Viking links to the place in England where I grew up.
‘Suddenly, I was writing two stories simultaneously; the story of an ice-skating couple and the story of a Viking couple. I felt each of the couples were deeply emotionally connected to the other. Then, as I wrote on, writing to please myself, I discovered my couples shared a love that lasts through time; in fact, their love actually endured through time, from its Viking past to the present day. My two stories became one; Fire & Ice entwined, in the present, to the past!
‘Only a month or so into writing Fire & Ice, I mentioned its themes to a few other people. One of them voluntarily asked to read a chapter. Amazingly this led to a contract to publish. Wow. Suddenly I could see my dream to be published would become a reality.
‘But… I only had two months! My publisher needed two months to print and launch for Valentine’s Day. It was a tight time-frame that I was able to meet simply because I was writing from the heart a story that I wanted to read. Fire & Ice possessed me until it was a reality.
‘Now I know the key to my writing and publishing success is not necessarily to write about what I know and have experienced as many advocate, but to write stories that I actually want to read myself. I’m finding, pleasingly, that others want to read my stories too.’
www.daisylanepublishing.com/product-page/fire-and-ice