I’ve made my living as a writer all my life.
I’ve written for newspapers and magazines in England (London Evening News, Woman’s Own, True Magazine) and in the United States (STAR Magazine, TV Guide). I grew up in London during the Swinging 60s. I landed in New York during the disco era of Studio 54 and Xenon to write for TV news.
At WNEW-TV’s, 10 O’Clock News, I was the writer/researcher on the Emmy Award-winning documentary, Irish Eyes. Subsequently, I was an associate producer for Fox-TV’s tabloid TV newsmagazine, A Current Affair.
Author
I had two novels published by Tor/Forge in the late 1990s. Scandal (1996) and Delusion (1997) were both set in locales where I was living at the time of writing, Palm Beach and Philadelphia. Scandal was published as an original paperback. Best-selling author, Nelson DeMille provided a blurb which said: “Fresh, original and unpredictable.” Scandal sold 70,000 copies.
After my second crime thriller, Delusion, was published, I fulfilled another dream and went to law school. I graduated summa cum laude, passed the New York Bar Exam and for the better part of a decade worked as principal law clerk in the chambers of an appellate court judge (law students, law clerks and attorneys write A LOT!)
Memoir or Fiction?
For so long as I can remember, I wanted to write a novel. Not a literary masterpiece, but a rollicking good read like the ones I used to read by Jackie Collins (left) and Judith Krantz, or like the early mystery and suspense thrillers by Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson.
As a child, I was mainly influenced by the prolific British children’s author, Enid Blyton. So, I started writing fiction in elementary school in London. We were supposed to keep diaries documenting the events of our weekends. But rather than writing about my boring life with just one brother, I invented a half-dozen siblings for myself. I don’t know if my teacher ever found out the truth, but I eventually confessed to my father who, if I remember correctly, laughed it off.
In Lady Antonia’s Footsteps
My father encouraged my dream. He thought being a writer was a splendid career for a woman. I could be like Lady Antonia Fraser, he used to say, writing books while staying home with the children.
Not a very realistic role model, as it turned out, considering she was married at the time to a Member of Parliament (and subsequently to the great British playwright, Harold Pinter) and was undoubtedly wealthy enough to hire a nanny for each of her six kids while she wrote her fabulous biographies.
Obviously, the idea of making enough money to support myself by writing novels was a dicey proposition. So, in 1970, I embarked on the first of many diversions I would encounter on the road to becoming a published author: I became a reporter. I joined the Birmingham Post, the largest provincial daily newspaper in the U.K at the time.
Investigative Reporter
The job eventually led to a position on a Fleet Street newspaper, the London Evening News, where I worked as an investigative journalist.
One of the first investigations I worked on led to the arrest and trial at the Old Bailey of Jeremy Thorpe, a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Liberal Party in the U.K. He was charged along with three others with conspiracy to murder his former homosexual lover, Norman Scott.
Subsequently, the book, A Very English Scandal by journalist John Preston was turned into a three-part drama mini-series and streamed on Amazon Prime.
True Stories
In my spare time, I wrote for True Magazine and Love Affair, which were also known as “confessionals” (the British equivalents of True Story and True Confessions ) – a venture in which I became prolific and much in demand. But writing fiction was difficult and far less glamorous than hanging out after work with fellow reporters, swapping “war” stories over a few drinks.
It was no different in New York where, for almost a decade, I worked as a reporter, news editor and eventually managing editor for the tabloid, STAR Magazine. It was a job that was so much fun, I always secretly felt I should be paying my employers, not the other way round.
Family
Almost any other writing job is easier than writing a novel. And so, given the opportunity, I generally opted for a job. At TV stations or at magazines, I wrote about real people in real life events. Even law school and work as a judicial law clerk seemed easier because legal writing is principally based on precedent, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
Writing a novel or a screenplay, on the other hand, meant “chaining” myself to a desk so that I could fill blank pages from my own imagination. I stayed “chained” to my desk long enough to complete my first two novels mainly because of the support of my husband, Joe, and the understanding of my son, Dan.
Joe is the most loving, generous husband in the whole world and introduced me to my first agent. Dan is a better writer than I ever was at his age, and provides me with insights into worlds I would never otherwise have thought about.
More About Me
Click here to read a New York Times in-depth interview with me when my second novel, Delusion, was published.
More recently, I was the featured writer here, on a widely read Writing and Wellness website. Subsequently, my writing tips were featured in another interview on Writing and Wellness
You can also read author, Madison Lawson’s interview with me here.