Amanda Radley
And now for something completely different…
Over ten years ago I wrote a book. Well, it wasn’t quite a book. It was a series of ideas that I just couldn’t get out of my mind. It was a story that I knew back to front and inside out. Something that I just wanted—no needed—to commit to paper, or a Word document.
I’d never had any aspirations to be a writer but this story just had to be told.
And so, over the course of around eight years, I finally wrote it down. When I was finished I knew it wasn’t much good. I had no understanding of the technicalities of writing or publishing, and I knew it was bad in terms of grammar and skill, but I always thought the underlying story was good. At the time my only aim was to get the story out of my head, which I did. So I saved the document and it has since been left to fester in the crevices of my various PCs and laptops.
Things are very different for me today.
I’ve published four books, I have another three in the pipeline to be published within the next four months. I feel I’ve learnt enough about my craft to be able to take this story and make it into a reality. So, I’m hoping to overhaul the manuscript with all my new-found knowledge and release Family Ties in September* (*updated May 2018) of this year.
I didn’t know it at the time but I wrote a political thriller. It’s not a lesfic book by any means, but there are LGBT characters and the lead is a strong and independent woman so I think the lesfic market would still be interested in it. I’m publishing it under my full name in order to keep it separate from my lesfic writing, so as not to confuse anyone into thinking they might be picking up a romance story when… it really isn’t!
For me, this will be the ultimate challenge. I’m taking a project that has been very close to my heart for a very long time, and finally trying to turn it into a book. It’s a break from my lesfic romance stories and I’m looking forward to putting my new skills to work on this manuscript.
I know this won’t be for everyone but I hope some of you will follow me on this short detour into a new genre and give me your valid opinion on something completely different.