Sometimes you have to be bad at something before you can become exceptionally good at it.

When I started secondary school, my English grade was much lower than those of my classmates – embarrassingly so. My teachers never thought I’d be good at the subject, and for a long while, I was quite behind. So, the summer before I began year 9 (the equivalent of 8th grade), I was given revision guides to help me with English. These were a slightly lower level than I was meant to be at, probably to ease me in to the subject. Each day I had to write a short story using various prompts in the guide. One of these prompts was ‘write a short story about someone falsely accused of committing a crime.’

I’d been watching quite a bit of TV around the time with the theme centred around that, so I was more familiar with that prompt than some of the others in the revision guide. However, I left it for a while and we went out on a family walk, but I still thought about what I was going to write. Then one single phrase came to me – and that phrase is where it all began. ‘Guilty until proven innocent.’

Whilst it had started out as a short story to help me become better at English, that story grew as I got older. From starting off as a couple of pages when I was immature at aged 13, to the near 500 page novel that it is today, Guilty Until Proven Innocent became Atlantic Split. We all have to start somewhere and if I had never been so bad at English, I would never have found that prompt that would start me off on this journey into becoming a writer of The Luke Bright Series. Sometimes, it’s the worst and most embarrassing experiences that can lead the way to the best opportunities.

On Monday, I received the proof copies of Atlantic Split in the post. Being able to hold a 3D version of your book and turn the pages, just as you would of a book in a book shop was magical. It’s different to seeing it completed on a computer screen where you can see the word count and the number of pages, because you can hold it in your hands and feel the weight of what you have completed. I can finally visualise the amount of hard graft, editing, typing, planning and plotting that has gone into writing my first novel, and I think it was only then that I realised just what a big part of my life this book series has become.

This book in particular will always hold a special place in my heart, because its the story that grew from so little, but became so much. Since I began the story properly back in 2006, I felt like a writer, but it was only when I held a paperback copy of Atlantic Split in my hands that I felt like an author. It’s almost surreal, and seeing my printed book will be a moment I capture in time for the rest of my life. There’s still a lot more work to be done, but now it feels like things are starting to get serious. I might just reach my dream after all.

Atlantic Split is the first novel in The Luke Bright Series and I am hoping to release it in early 2018. Please follow my blog to follow my progress and find out when and where you’ll be able to purchase a copy, and follow me on my social media links which you’ll find below. Thank you once again for taking the time to read my blog. Now, it’s time for me, and my red pen, to read the printed proof copy of my novel.

N.A.K.