Other novels

The question that I'm most often asked by readers who loved my first book is, "when is your next novel coming out?" The most truthful answer is, "I don't know." I have been working on a 'second novel' ever since Dying for Cake (called Friends & Mothers in the US) was released in Australia in May 2003. I actually completed an 80,000-word manuscript in 2006 but that novel was not accepted for publication. Ironically the working title of that book was Perfect Faith!

As a writer, the experience of having a manuscript rejected after such a successful first book was devastating. Initially, I felt an acute sense of loss and I began to question all my most strongly held beliefs about my life and my writing. I had tried so hard and still failed, so was I really a writer? Bear in mind that my first novel was essentially about self-realisation. I thought that perhaps my failure to produce a viable second novel was a sign that I should give up...

In the end, this experience of 'failure' proved immensely valuable to me. I recall a particularly low day when I found myself staring at a picture of my mother and I which was taken when I was about one year old. In the picture I am smiling and happy. I know I am loved, without ever having achieved anything tangible in the world at all. I realized then that the publication of my stories didn't actually matter. It was the writing that was important. I have been an author of stories since I was small. I hadn't dreamed of ever having Dying for Cake published but I had wanted to tell the story anyway. The creation of the story was what was important to me. I had forgotten this in the excitement of being published and winning critical acclaim for my novel.

I am now working on another manuscript and I feel much more at peace with myself.