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    Sally Altass – Author

    For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to write a book. Even before I wanted to become a journalist (which was from watching Superman and wanting to be just like Lois Lane), which is saying something. The first story I remember writing was about myself; I ate a daisy and shrunk, along with my friend. We found a friendly ladybird, and she let us sit on her back as she flew us to a village a few miles away (it was called Ashton upon Mersey, and my friend was excited because she was a Liverpool fan). I remember drawing pictures of the ladybird as well as me and friend, and wrote it on A4 paper folded in half. I can’t remember how old I was, but I knew I wanted to write more stories.

    By the time I reached my late teens, I was off to university to study Journalism. I got my degree, and spent several long years working in call centres and freelancing as and when I could. After I had my youngest, I quit the call centre, and began freelancing in earnest; working with the local music scene. I wrote reviews about local unsigned bands, comedians, films and plays. Eventually, I got a gig on a local radio station, hosting an indie show – it was my happy place – playing my favourite music for other people to hear. Unfortunately, ill health plagued me, and I started struggling to get to gigs and the theatre – having to stay home and curl up with a hot water bottle.

    That’s when I started to think back to my first love; books. A kernel of an idea formed, and I started to slowly develop it. It took a while; I worked on the minutia of the plot, working out the backstory and sounding out character names. I started to make detailed notes, draw maps, make family trees. Slowly, but surely, my idea was beginning to take shape.

    That was three years ago.

    Two years ago, I finally made the tentative start on the first handwritten draft. I scribbled words down in my messy handwriting, my hand flowing across the paper. I read out that first chapter to my daughter, and her reaction told me everything. There was something there. There had to be.

    Eventually, last summer, I started typing my words up, and the story grew from a few chapters to a full blown book. In January, 2022, I somehow managed to write a chapter a day, my fingers flying over the keyboard like a pianist playing a concerto. That sounds incredibly pretentious, but, honestly, that’s what it genuinely felt like. The weekend before my daughter’s sixteenth birthday, I finished the first draft. I sent it, feeling hideously nervous, to my wonderful Beta Readers, and waited.

    When the feedback came, I was in shock. It was overwhelmingly positive – I had very few amendments to make – something I hadn’t anticipated. I quickly hashed out the amendments, and felt happy with the story. With a deep breath, I uploaded the manuscript onto the formatting software, and started to push forward. I played with some cover ideas, and consulted with a really close friend. I played on a website which was dedicated to making fictional maps. I had a bit of help working out the gremlin kinks of the manuscript, and behold. It was ready.

    You can sign up for my mailing list here, to get regular updates about my writing, reviews, recommendations and other bits and bobs. There might even be some competitions!

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