Giving Birth at 77!

Let’s face it, if I had just given birth to an actual baby, you might already have heard about it. Mine is somewhat different but it also involves a moment of conception, a long period of gestation over several months, followed by quite a challenging birth when, with the help of a wonderful Irish friend, Siobhan, who acted as my secret midwife, my baby was brought into the world.

It’s been the biggest secret I have ever kept for such a long time. I told no-one at all (not a soul) except for my friend who I swore to secrecy. And now, here I am telling the world about it.  

The cat, the baby, or to be more accurate the novel I have just written is finally out of the bag and will be published on Easter Saturday - April 4th!

My Process for Writing Like A Bird Without A Song

Conception

Not a defined moment as in the sperm finding its way to the egg to create fertilisation so much as a longish period of cogitation. These characters have been up to all sorts in my head for months, years even. My story is about surprising love (no, not an older-age romance - heaven forfend - I was young once, you know). Two very different people who are young when they meet and fall in love. The deep connection they experience changes both of them, as it needs to do, and then they (have to) part. They meet again twenty years later and a bombshell from their past explodes, so the second part of the book deals with that fallout and resolution.

Gestation

This process began early last summer when I started writing it all down. It came very fast once I started, which is probably why it reads like a first draft. The ideas tumbled onto the page. I’d write something and then realise 50 pages later why it was important and significant to the story. It was the weirdest thing I’d ever done. The characters became real, living, breathing people. I could see them so clearly, see every scene as in a film, and I began to love them, even the vile Aileen Kenny, nasty mother to Sean, the kindest, nicest character in the book. At this stage the story invaded practically every waking moment of downtime. In the bath, cooking my supper, before and after sleep while still in bed. And all of it filled me with a mad kind of happiness.

A Big Secret

I felt very shy about this whole project from the moment I wrote the first word into a Google Doc. Almost embarrassed to be presuming to write fiction. I have always loved to write - journals, academic essays, blogs, including the non-fiction book I’m still proud of Living the Life More Fabulous* which was published in 2018. But this was so different. This was imaginary. This was coming out of my head and it would expose me in a way that would leave me naked, undefended and maybe, if it was deemed unreadable, deeply ashamed. That’s why I kept it secret apart from my First Reader, Siobhan.  I didn’t even share it with my daughters, possibly because the last time I said “I’ve had a brilliant idea,” we ended up buying a factory!

My First/Second/Third/Fourth Draft and My Super Readers

The problem with sharing this with just one person was that I had no real idea if it was any good. My friend liked it well enough but I knew that I needed it to be read by a professional. So I signed up with The Faber Academy and paid a small fee to have my 82,000 word manuscript appraised by an expert. Her very long and detailed report was, happily for me, extremely encouraging:

“You have a first draft, and should be applauded for that - you have done so much more than 99% of aspiring writers, and you are a big step along the journey - but also quite some way from the destination.”

This was her overall summary:

“There is so much I like about your story. You write clearly on a line level, with simple, effective description, and you have created likeable main characters and give a sense of what it is to be a young adult with choices. The reader gets a real sense of yearning, of two people who don’t think they can be together and, ultimately, are estranged for twenty years before reuniting. All this is the basis for an excellent story.”

She went on to say that this was a first draft, and also gave me lots of brilliant guidance on what I needed to do to improve the text. So I set about my second, then a third and, finally, fourth draft until I felt ready to begin to share my story with some more Beta Readers who could help me to shape and improve it further, I put out an appeal on my Look Fabulous Forever weekly blog at the end of October, hoping for maybe six or so people who might volunteer to read my book as I continued to develop it, and received over 80 responses. Wow! An overwhelming response and about 70 of these Super Readers have been my boon companions since then.

Getting it Published

Also in October 2025, I bought the Artists and Writers Yearbook 2026 and read all the brilliant articles in it. I began to understand that getting a new novel published by an unknown author would be near-on impossible and may take a very long time. First you need an agent (very very difficult), then that agent needs to entice a publisher - nigh on impossible except for a miniscule percentage who make it through. And then, at most, a very few (2 or 3)  thousand books will sell. Dreams of being a later life publishing phenomenon faded faster than a holiday tan. However….. There is another way.

Becoming an Indie Author

Self Publishing. No. Don’t scoff. I know that it used to be called Vanity Publishing and it’s widely sneered at by proper literary folk. But, did you know that Colleen Hoover, who has now sold tens of millions of books, self-published ‘Slammed’ in 2011 as a gift for her mother. Seven months later it was on the NYT bestseller list.  There is also an article in the A&W Yearbook about a self published novel - Medusa by Rosie Hewlett - which gathered enough good reviews after generating interest via social media for about eighteen months to go to a publishing bidding situation. So, I am embarking on this route with great enthusiasm and my fingers firmly crossed.

Spring 2026: Book Launch Day for Like A Bird Without A Song

My book is now complete and has been professionally edited. I have had a beautiful cover designed and it will be available to pre-order on Amazon links from early March. I have created a dedicated Facebook group called Tricia’s Super Readers so that together we can create a book loving community to share in the excitement of my journey and also to share our reading passions.

Join Tricia's Super Readers Private Facebook Group here.