How I got published
The author of historical thrillers tells Dolores Gordon Smith about her path to publication
CAROLYN KIRBY
‘I can put a date to the moment when I first decided to write fiction. It was 8 May 2008 and I had just read the Guardian’s obituary for a wartime pilot, Diana Barnato Walker. I was an avid reader of historical novels and had often fantasised that I might write one. When I read about Diana’s life, one that was filled with glamour and adventure as well as tragedy, I felt that if I was going to write a novel, it would be the story of someone like her.
‘And so, I started writing. It was to be a young adult novel about wartime women pilots which I thought would take me about six weeks, a few months at the most, and I had no doubt that once finished it would swiftly find a publisher. Twelve years later, When We Fall, the book that grew from this first wartime story, is being published.
‘Twelve years is a long time. But looking back, I set off on the wrong path in trying to write for teenagers. I suppose I did this because my teenage daughters’ young adult novels made it look easy. I failed to notice how hard it is to create the engrossing voice that makes successful young adult fiction. Needless to say, my own young adult submissions didn’t get very far with agents.