Brought To Book
Sue Moorcroft shares her writing career highlights
Just For The Holidays (Corgi PB £7.99) Sue’s latest novel takes us to sunny Alsace where determinedly-single Leah Beaumont’s relaxing holiday soon becomes a litany of drama and crises as she copes with her sister’s disintegrating marriage, two shellshocked but still bolshie teenagers, and her own growing attraction to Ronan – the man next door, who may be fit but comes with his own set of holiday baggage, including a Goth son and a very needy ex-wife! Sue’s gift for description and characters and a well-paced, funny yet tender plot makes this the ideal holiday read. My first writing success was my short story Tommie’sTale appearing in the school magazine. It was about my dog, Tammie, but my handwriting was so bad her name was misread.
I made my first sale to a “proper” magazine on April 1, 1996 to The People’s Friend. I was half-scared the letter would prove to be an April Fool but, no, it was real. I spent my fee on a new computer chair but, sadly, the covering proved to contain wool and gave me a rash! My second sale a few months later was to My Weekly. That was the first story I saw in print as The People’s Friend held onto the other story for their Annual. I sold 87 short stories and a serial before securing my first contract for a novel. The publishers, Transita, invited me onto their stand at the London Book Fair and placed into my hands a hot-off-the-press copy. Everyone on the stand had signed it and I got all teary.
There were a couple of big writers on the shortlist for
the Readers’ Best Romantic Read Award from the Festival of Romantic Fiction. But, in a haze of disbelief, I won with Love& Freedom. In the photos I look as if I’m suffering from shock!
When doing a signing in a bookshop I met a lovely lady. She’d been seriously ill but had come along to tell me my books were getting her through long periods of enforced rest. I felt privileged.
At Christmas, 2016 The Christmas Promise hit #1 in the Kindle chart and stayed there for five days. I was officially a bestselling author! It was as if everything in the past 20-plus years had been leading up to that!