How did you take your‘ idea’ for a book from inspiration to product?

I had a dream. I had a deadline.

I had a dictum( courtesy of Mr Mark Twain). And here it is:

“ Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’ t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” in 30 days’ challenge. Twelve months later, and another 50,000 words, House for all Seasons was ready to submit – or so I thought.

My first publisher submission( while not successful) did attract the attention of a literary agent( my dream agent, in fact) and in September 2010 – the day before my 50th birthday – I signed with Curtis Brown Agency. Hoorah! Deadline met!

Now what?

Feedback from my agent encouraged me to rework certain parts of the manuscript, expanding and growing the story and the characters far beyond what I ever thought I could. I also took the time to develop my author platform. I knew that to cut through the clutter, an author had to have:

The deadline was a milestone birthday that was startlingly close. I was getting older by the second.

I’ d already made the big sea / tree change a few years back. I bought a small cafe in a small town so I could get back to a simpler life, a gentler life, a life in the country. Although never having made a coffee in my life, coming from corporate Sydney I had drunk my share. I mean, how hard could it be to make one?( Hard! And I now have a new respect for small business operators and hospitality workers.)

Living in regional NSW, the seasons have become my greatest inspiration and the idea of creating a story about four women, each as different as the seasons, came to me on a morning walk. There’ s a liquidambar tree that I photographed over the course of the year( although the photos do not do the colours justice.) What better analogy than the seasons for a story that deals with change and growth. The seasons are about contrast and contrast makes great conflict and characters in a novel.

With that kernel of an idea I glued my butt to a chair for the duration of the 2009 NaNoWriMo( National Novel Writing Month) and met the‘ 50,000 words

VISIBILITY- ability to be found by readers;

REACH- the mechanism for getting in touch with an audience; and

AUTHENTICITY- a relatable / credible platform.

More edits( and another 20,000 words, taking the final word count to 140,000- phew!) the result was my debut novel, House for all Seasons, told in four parts: Tall Poppy, Surviving Summer, Amber Leaves and Wynters Way.

Now I’ m published, I like to tell other Senior Card carrying pragmatists that publication doesn’ t have to be fiction. Publishing contracts happen every day, and to ordinary people just like me. I’ ve also learned the real business of being an author is not about book-signings and Sunday brunches. Mostly we’ re hunched over a keyboard— a kind of self-imposed solitary confinement— developing addictions to coffee and chocolate and amusing ourselves with