Annie Ireson

Annie Ireson

Thank you for visiting my website and blog. It’s great to see you here.

Some of you may know me already, but if you don’t, my journey to publication can be tracked through my archives.

On 31st October 2012 my first book, The White Cuckoo, will be published. The White Cuckoo is a supernatural story about two women whose lives connect across time. When thirteen year old Jessie gives birth to a premature baby in 1910 the ripples of her tragic, short life spread out way into the future, waiting for the right person to come along and discover the truth about her evil rapist.

Last year, I joined an online writing group, Writers for Welfare, and forged new friendships with some incredibly talented fellow writers, both published and unpublished.  Without going into the details of the weekly just-for-fun writing competitions, we eventually decided to produce a charity anthology for the benefit of the Norfolk Hospice. Telling Tales was published on 31st March 2012 and my story, A2 + B2 = C2, was included in the book.

The publishers contacted me and asked me if I had any full length work. Shocked, surprised and very, very scared, I sent off the first three chapters and synopsis of The White Cuckoo.

I signed a contract with the publishers, and worked very, very hard throughout the summer towards a publication date of 31st October. Unfortunately, in the manner of most things in life, things have gone ‘belly-up’ and the publisher has folded and is now ceasing to trade.  So … despite saying I will never self-publish, that is exactly what I shall be doing because I hate letting people down and so many people have said how much they are looking forward to reading my novel.

The most exciting part of publication for me is not as I expected. Of course, I can’t wait to see the final design of the book cover, and for the joy of seeing my name on Amazon and other bookselling websites, but now my dream has become a reality, the thought of reaching out and getting to know my readers thrills me to bits. Please do drop by, via email on the Contact tab above and introduce yourself.  We can share a virtual cup of tea and get to know each other.

You can read some interesting facts about The White Cuckoo on the page above, including the reason I wrote a book completely outside my usual genre of family sagas.

Achieving recognition as an author is a sometimes fraught and demoralising process. It’s important to try not to take the rejections and setbacks personally and keep reminding yourself of the positives. If a professional in the industry tells you that ‘you write well’ or they ‘enjoyed the story’ then hold onto that for dear life.  It might be that your genre is not fashionable at the moment or there is a huge log jam of talented, unpublished writers trying to thread themselves through the eye of the needle. The current economic climate means that publishers, like everyone else, are having to shut the door on the risk of a previously unpublished writer, preferring to put all their valuable eggs into the tried and tested basket. I can thoroughly recommend Wannabe a Writer? and Wannabe a Writer We’ve Heard Of? by Jane Wenham-Jones.  These books not only contain a wealth of information for people who aspire to write short stories, articles and novels, but are a cracking good read, too, not to mention the small fact that I get a mention in the latter and Jane is a lovely woman who makes me laugh when things are tough.

Self-publishing is becoming ever more popular and is undoubtedly the way to go for some talented writers.  There are some fabulous self-published books out there: take a look at Taunting the Dead, by the lovely Mel Sherratt, for example.  Mel is a wonderful lady with whom I have shared some of the head-in-the-clouds highs and darkly-depressing lows of this strange journey of initiation that most writers have to go through before they are published. If you download this e-book you will be guaranteed of a cracking good read.

Please do pop by this website now and again and read my blog, which you can access on the tab at the top of this page.  I live in Kettering, a small market town in Northamptonshire. According to a local resident, people get strangely sucked in here, as if it is a comfortable black hole, and then they find themselves living in Kettering for the rest of their lives.  You can read about some of Kettering’s characters on Kettering Folk tab above.  Some of them might even appear in future novels, who knows?

With love from Annie

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