My Own Writing Story

It seems a little self-indulgent to write about my own experience as a writer when I haven’t achieved anything like the success of the writers I will be reviewing in future blogs, but as my reactions to everything I write about will be very personal, it also feels fitting.

I’m going to start, unpredictably perhaps, somewhere in the middle. (Well, a good writer should always surprise).

This particular chapter began when I was in my mid-20s, sleeping on the floor of my sister’s flat in Belsize Park, London. I was between homes having fallen out with my previous flatmate. (He’s still one of my dearest friends). I’d submitted a novel, The Tower to a leading agent, Curtis Brown, expecting to hear nothing positive — I’d been touting it to agents and publishers for several years. But by some miracle, an agent from Curtis Brown contacted me and asked for a meeting — to put this in context, this was one of the biggest literary agents in the world, with very posh offices in Regents Street and I was a complete unknown without even a published story to my name.

But what made this period in my writing history even more remarkable was that I received a call from a second agent, the renowned Desmond Elliott, also asking for a meeting to discuss my novel. I was friends with Desmond's accountant and, in an act of kindness to that friend, Desmond had agreed to read my manuscript. Again, I hadn’t expected to hear from him, apart from the usual standard rejection letter.

So, here I was, aged 26, with two agents asking to meet with me.

Even I, with a pessimism based on several years of constant rejection, was feeling excited and hopeful.

I actually met with Desmond first. He was definitely a character. Tiny in stature, but big in terms of charisma and standing within the publishing industry. In his office in St James’s he talked enthusiastically about my book, how he’d never read anything like it and thought it would be great for him to represent an unknown author — his stable of writers included such bestsellers as Jilly Cooper and Penny Vincenzi. My novel was a dark and twisted urban fantasy set in the back streets of Camden Town, so had little in common with his current clients’ work!

I saw the agent at Curtis Brown next. I can’t remember his name, which foretells which agent I decided to go with. This agent was more reserved and critical in his assessment of my first full-length work. He said he thought it would be damaging to send it out into the publishing world, but that he saw potential in me and would help me write something else. He suggested a novel in the detective/crime genre, as he liked the way I tied up the various storylines in my book.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a 26-year-old who thought he’d written the next great British novel, I took up Desmond’s offer of representation.

In retrospect, this was one of those major crossroads in life where I probably made the wrong decision.

Despite a valiant effort, even dear Desmond, who commanded the respect and affection of the world’s biggest publishing executives, couldn’t place my novel. Having flicked through it in recent years, I’m not surprised. It was a naive attempt to be controversial and really not that well written.

Desmond tried with my second novel too, an equally dark and perverse vampire tome. This was also met with no enthusiasm from the major publishers, although I did at least get to have lunch with someone from Orion.

Desmond sadly died in 2003 at the age of 73. I was honored to be invited to his memorial service along with all his very successful clients. (I had a lovely chat with lyricist Tim Rice whom Desmond had represented, along with Andrew Lloyd-Webber, early in their careers).

It was a brush with ‘almost success’ that I will never forget and I have never managed to land another agent since.

There have been other minor successes though, including numerous short stories published in the UK and the States, building a reputation among like-minded writers on various online forums, a new lease of literary life writing for Woman’s Weekly, and also a foray into the world of gay erotic romance (under a pen name that will never be revealed in this blog).

You'll need to pop by again to hear more about these stops on my writing journey.