Keep the Faith

This post is dedicated to any readers of this blog working hard to see their stories in print …There’s a box of books on my landing which will, when I get round to it, go up into t’garret.

They’re books I wrote, specifically twenty paperback copies of Principles of Angels, purchased at ‘author rates’ from Gollancz as an investment for my old age (or possibly to flog at Eastercon).

With four books in print and another one due out later this year, I’ve become a little blasé being what I always wanted to be: a professional writer. However, I just walked past and picked one of my books up and had a moment of wonder, because five years ago I had almost given up on that dream. I never thought I’d see one novel I wrote on the shelves of bookshops and reviewed across the net and in print, let alone four. Yet now it’s my life: not entirely as advertised (I haven’t entirely given up the day-job for a start), but hell, still The Dream.

Becoming a professional writer involved years of hard work and frustration but in the end it paid off. I got my lucky break – ask me about that some time, there’s a story in itself. What matters is, it happened to me. So, stick the course and it could happen to you.