Guest post:
I’m a literary butterfly. I love to read and I read prolifically with no
particular loyalty to any author. I read what’s new, what’s recommended, and
what people are talking about, with a particular bent at the moment toward
psychological thrillers.
I also think you read whatever stage of life you’re currently at, so my
favourite authors change over the years. Ones I’ve read a fair bit of include
Robertson Davies, Nora Ephron, Iain Banks, Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry and
Sebastian Faulks. I’m just getting into Simon Kernick – I’m bit late to the
party with that one but I do like discovering authors once they’ve got a body
of work behind them as you can then immerse yourself in it non-stop without
waiting for the latest release to come out!
In terms of how authors have helped me, I think, as a writer, you learn
something from every author whose work you read, but there are two authors who
really did help me personally:
Tony Parsons: In 2010, I was lucky
enough to get a place on a writing masterclass held by him at the Emirates
Airline Festival of Literature. I learned a lot, but the one thing that stuck
out was his advice for writing a best-seller: ‘Don’t fake it. Rip it from your
soul.’ Your readers, he said, are not stupid. If you’re trying to write a book
specifically to meet trends and be a bestseller, they’ll see through it. It’s
only when you write from your heart that people respond to a story. It’s great
advice.
Graeme Simsion: Not only did I love
‘The Rosie Project’ and ‘The Rosie Effect’, but I loved meeting Graeme at the
EAFOL 2015. I got talking to him on the day that my first novel, ‘Coming Home’,
launched, and he insisted we go together to the book shop where he bought a
copy and asked me to sign my first ever signed copy for him. I was quite
nervous about what people would think about the book and he said, ‘Your goal
was to get a novel published. Be proud that you’ve achieved that. Everything
else is gravy.’
About Annabel:
In 2013, she won the inaugural Montegrappa Prize for First Fiction at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. Her work caught the critical eye of top London agent Luigi Bonomi and Annabel went on to secure a three-book contract with Harlequin’s MIRA. Her debut novel, Coming Home (MIRA, May 2015), is the reworked version of the prize-winning manuscript.
Annabel studied psychology at Warwick University, graduating in 1992 with a BSc Hons degree. She liked the idea of becoming a psychologist but the call from the written word was louder. She spent six years working in publishing in London, first at Franklin Watts and then at Dorling Kindersley, before marrying and moving to Dubai in 1998. In the early days in Dubai, Annabel worked as a freelance journalist and a radio producer before being appointed as editor of the region’s leading woman’s magazine, Emirates Woman.
In 2007, Annabel left office life to work as a freelance journalist while following her dream of writing fiction. She has written prolifically for publications in the UK and across the Middle East and currently juggles her fiction-writing with her work for The Telegraph and Stylist Arabia while bringing up her children. Novels remain Annabel’s passion: she drafts her manuscripts not only every moment she’s awake, but often in her sleep as well.
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