For me, this is a day of days. Ever
since I was a kid, lost in the pages of Tolkien or Douglas Adams, I
have dreamed of being a published author.
Over the years I've written magazine
articles, and even managed to get the odd short story into print, but a
proper book? That was always more of a long-term goal or, if I'm
honest, more of a long-shot.
But today, my first novel is finally
published by Hodder & Stoughton. Eye Contact began life as an
ongoing piece of homework for a Creative Writing evening class. When
I started attending that class, our tutor asked each of us what our
ambitions were – I told him that I wanted to get a novel published,
and that I wanted to walk into a bookshop and see a copy of it on the
shelf.
Well, today, I'm off to a series of
meetings in London. But on the way home, I'm going to pop into a few
book shops and see if I can find a copy.
And I'm going to count myself very,
very fortunate indeed.