Posted by: Clare Nonhebel
on Jan 29, 2011
It was always my ambition to be a writer. It outlasted my other ambitions (ballerina, dairy farmer) and other careers - carer for young disabled, social worker, optician's assistant, secretary, and PR executive.
I've written stories ever since I could write. My first novel was 100 pages long, written in biro in a couple of exercise books, at the age of 13, and only my sister was allowed to read it. By my twenties, I was seriously writing a book. I'd heard how difficult it was to get published, and how you should never send the whole manuscript, only a couple of chapters as a taster. So I was caught out when, having sent three chapters of my first adult novel to Penguin books, an editor wrote back and asked to see the rest of it. I had to ask her to wait six months because I hadn't written it yet!