I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child, one of my earliest ambitions was to become a children’s author. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to write for adults – it seemed so limiting and unexciting.
I wrote lots of stories, and even a YA novel about vampires in my teens, but I had no idea how to go about getting published and wrote simply for the love of it.
I would read widely and often – horror, teen fiction, the classics – but when I was sixteen I picked up my first ever ‘bonkbuster’ novel. It was Career Girls by Louise Bagshawe, and was like nothing I’d ever read before – glossy, glam and thoroughly filthy. The heroines were gorgeous, ambitious women; the men sexy and self-assured. I was hooked.
More than that, it made me want to write a bonkbuster of my own. A few years later, while I was at university, I started trying. By now I’d discovered the Writers and Artists Yearbook, and tentatively sent off some sample chapters to agents. But nothing came of it, and I spent the next few years starting novels in various genres, sending them out, getting rejections and starting the whole process again.
But the idea for Idol (which eventually became my debut novel) wouldn’t go away, and as bonkbusters began to make a comeback in recent years, I re-drafted the manuscript and sent it out.
I was lucky enough to get taken on by Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson agency, and after that everything came together pretty quickly. It’s thrilling to finally see my own book on the shelves, up there with authors that I love, and if my story proves anything it’s that you should persevere. It’s taken me just over ten years to become a published author, but I’ve learned so much along the way and the end result is definitely worth it!
For more information, visit http://www.carrieduffy.com
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