Last time I told you about a few of my favourite books. Since having kids I’ve loved helping them discover some of my favourite books from my own childhood. Roald Dahl was a big part of the reason I loved to read. It felt like such an achievement to finish one of his books as they felt so long!

My own love of writing started young. I remember telling stories to my sister when we shared a room to help her get to sleep. When I was eight I entered a writing competition at school and wrote a story about a giant bird that made the tower of Pisa lean! Then when I reached my teenage years I would write in the style of the novels that were the favourite at the time – Point Horror. Anyone who knows me now knows that’s not what I like at all! I have nightmares at the smallest thing! But I wrote my own point Horror which I would write in the evenings and then bring in to school the next day and would then be passed around the class for everyone to catch up.

Eventually though I knew this was not the kind of thing I wanted to write and so I burnt the manuscript. Not sure whether it was a great idea now. I’d be interested to reread what I’d written then but it would probably be embarrassing!

I have often secretly been writing little things, whether stories or poems. At some point I’ll tell you what tipped me over to actually attempt a novel. The idea for my first novel came from a conversation I overheard about it not being fair that someone got rain on their wedding day. It got me thinking who knows what’s fair? Who decides?

I started writing without a plan and wrote almost the whole thing by hand before typing it up. At first I didn’t tell anyone as I was embarrassed and not sure I would finish it. When I finally finished I printed it and handed it to a couple of friends to read. I know now that was a big mistake! It was unedited and raw. But for me it felt like such an achievement to finish.

More on this later. But I wanted to inspire you to have a go at whatever it is that you’ve always dreamt of doing! You never know what might come out of it.