International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 57 | Page 114

trusted to review my manuscript
honestly had done so, and I felt
confident enough to submit to a
couple of publishers, and I headed
into the New Year with an offer on
the table.
By the time this article comes out,
my novel, To The Devil’s Tune,
will be officially released. But even
through the sale of my own author
copies, the essence of the book has
already started to reach those that
need it, and friends of friends have
been getting in touch with news of
how it has touched them, and even
set them on the road to recovery.
This really is the icing on the cake.

the back of my mind. But this time
it seemed ideal. I was in the right
place, both physically in my new
home, and mentally too, and so
with the support of my family, I
signed up to the challenge.
With no clue as to how this
would work, I spent the last week
in October creating a skeleton
structure, and building a clearer
picture of my characters. Two of
my main characters were based on
two friends who had kindly shared
their personal stories with me
when I’d first had the book idea, so
they weren’t too hard to imagine.
But my other characters took some
researching. I also decided to set
some of the story in India. Having
never been there myself, I took
time to research the different areas,
industries, climates and regional
food, along with traditional dress
and religions. Isn’t the internet a
fabulous tool? It was as if I’d been
on holiday whilst sitting at my
desk!

Looking back, I knew the timing
had to be just right for me to
embark on this challenge, but what
amazes me is that the entire process
on my son’s birthday (plus having from start to release has taken just
eight of his friends to stay!), I ten months. It goes to show that
worked out a daily word target. the only thing that really gets in the
Within just a few days, I had settled way of this process i