How did your blog come about? | | Caroline Smailes |
'I’d just finished my first novel, In Search of Adam, and had no idea what to do next. I didn’t know anything about the publishing industry at all. I didn’t even know if I had the confidence to send my work off. My husband suggested I set up a website to talk about the novel. Part of it was about Jude, the main character, and part was about me writing it. Then a friend suggested I start a blog. It started off with me asking how to write a letter to an agent. In the beginning, it was about me ranting on really, trying to figure out how to get a book published. I talked about the novel and included an extract from the book, which talks about subjects (abuse, self-harm, suicide) that are quite taboo. I thought that it would take someone with quite a lot of courage to take that on, considering I had never had anything published.' From blog to book deal – how did that happen?'I was contacted by a woman called Clare from The Friday Project, a new publisher, a month after I started the blog. She’d found my blog through a comment I’d left on another blog about a book called 'e-luv' they’d published. Clare emailed to say she’d read the extract from my novel and wanted to read the full manuscript. Only a week before Clare contacted me I was blogging about needing a Fairy Godmother, someone willing to take my novel on.  | | From Caroline's blog: In Search of Adam |
'I sent the manuscript on the Sunday and by the Monday evening Clare offered me a deal. I got my contract on the Wednesday and actually signed my contract on National Blogging Day, which was incredible. I made sure I blogged on that day.' When did you first start writing?'I’ve always written but I never had the confidence do anything about it when I was younger. I was quite precious about my work and didn’t like sharing it. 'I actually wrote a section of the novel last year and had a few ideas but didn’t have the time or the commitment to see it through. Then I watched an interview on Richard and Judy in which they referred to someone as a ‘nearly woman’ and I went into a bit of a flap and thought: "That’s me, I’m a nearly writer!" I was doing a PhD at the time and I decided that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to commit to writing, so I gave up my PhD and enrolled on a Masters in Creative Writing at MMU. The course really helped and my novel became the focus of the course.' Tell me a bit about the novel and where you got the idea from...| "Only a week before Clare contacted me I was blogging about needing a Fairy Godmother, someone willing to take my novel on." | | Caroline Smailes, writer and blogger |
'The novel is set in the North East, as I am from the North East originally. It begins with a six-year-old girl who finds her mother has committed suicide. The novel deals with the girl coming to terms with her mother’s suicide. It also takes a modern-day look at the Adam and Eve story. There is a section of the novel that looks at the mother and why she committed suicide. I got the idea from something that had happened to me last year. I had a miscarriage and I wrote the first part of the novel in response to the miscarriage and then the story just went off on its own. I wasn’t really sure how it would end.' How have people responded to your blog?'I’ve had a lot of support, even though there is a lot of negativity about bloggers being published. I think the difference with me is that I wrote the novel before I started the blog. I’ve had emails from people who have experienced similar problems as those explored in the novel.' The novel is out next June, so what’s next?'I am going to keep the blog going. It’s so addictive. I have also started my second novel. I’ve promised myself that I will write 32,000 words by the end of November and post it on my site. Some of my bloggers have said they’ll join me and post their work too. My next novel is going to look at depression and bullying, but that may change by next week!' And, finally, will you be thanking Richard and Judy for turning you from a ‘nearly writer’ to a writer?'I did wonder about thanking them at the end of my novel but I decided not to. If I ever meet them, I will thank them though!' In Search of Adam is published by The Friday Project next June. | 
