Author profile: Award-winning author Norma Curtis keeps markets in mind

NORMA CURTIS

The award-winning author tells how keeping a market in mind paved the way for her success

The Welsh author Norma Curtis has written a range of novels in various genres, contemporary and historical, for adults and for children. So, when she agreed to be interviewed for Writing Magazine, I was looking forward to hearing about her writing journey.

Does Norma feel she was always destined to be a writer?

‘My great uncle Ap Hefin was a Welsh bard and hymn writer, and I’d like to think I’ ve inherited some writing genes from him, ’ she says. ‘But I’ ve always written diaries, poems and plays as a way of getting my thoughts and feelings down on paper.

‘During my late teens, I worked as a receptionist on a local newspaper. I decided I wanted to be published. So I joined a creative writing group, and each week we swapped pieces of work, taking it in turns to read these aloud. That way, we got to view our own efforts from a reader ’ s perspective. We soon learned that there ’ s no point in coming up with a beautiful sentence if it makes no sense on the page.

‘One evening, after I’d produced something that pleased me, the tutor asked what market I had in mind, and this was my Eureka moment. So that ’ s how it worked, I realised – I needed to write for a market.

‘My chosen market was a teenage magazine. I sent off a short story. Three weeks later, it was returned with a nice letter, and I sent off another one. This seemed to go on for quite a while, but eventually I had a story published.

‘A few years later, when I decided I wanted to write a novel, I joined the Romantic Novelists ’ Association under the RNA’ s New Writers ’ Scheme. I met a woman who was looking for romantic stories for a film company. She liked one of mine, bought the film rights, had Alanna Knight write the screenplay, and invited me to Dorset to watch the filming.

‘While some scenes at a manor house were being shot, the director ’ s girlfriend arrived unexpectedly, had a blazing row with him, and then stormed out. We heard an engine revving, followed by an almighty crash. We rushed outside to find her car had shot up a bank and overturned, and she was hanging upside down, restrained by her seat belt. Luckily, she wasn ’ t hurt.

‘This scene later became the inspiration for my first published novel Living it Up, Living it Down. A literary agent who knew the film director read the book, sold it, and it won the RNA’ s New Writers ’ Scheme award and was also promoted as one of WHSmith’ s Fresh Talent choices for that year. I wrote two more novels for the same publisher, but then I ran out of ideas.

‘I self-published a children ’ s novel and, after my mother died, I wrote two romantic comedies as Sophie Jenkins. The first, entitled The Forgotten Guide to Happiness, featured a lively character with a personality similar to my mother ’ s. This helped to keep her close to me, so it was a happy story to write at a difficult time.

‘When lockdown came in 2020, I found myself looking at a photographic calendar of Georgia. The month of May featured a shot of a reservoir surrounded by green hills, and had the caption: When the reservoir levels are low, the buried, underwater villages sometimes partly reappear.

‘Drowned villages are always mysterious and intriguing, and Wales has a couple of these. What if a character in a novel went away, I wondered, then came back many years later to find their own village under water? How would that feel?

‘An intriguing fact about one particular Welsh lake is that an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln ’ s grave lies beneath it. I decided the hero of my story would be an elderly American who remembered this fact. The novel would become a love story, and also my first historical. Appropriately enough, it ’ s called The Drowned Village. After writing the beginning, I worked out the ending. So I always knew vaguely where I was heading, even if I did sometimes get lost on the way.

‘My literary agent got me a two-book contract with Bookouture, and my next book for this publisher is also partly historical. It ’ s about a German woman who keeps her time in Belsen a secret from those closest to her. Like life, the story is full of small but also huge miracles.

‘I’ ve never learnt to type, so I use voice recognition software which feels like oral storytelling. I develop the plot in a notebook, as I go along. While I’ m working on the timelines, Post-It notes make it easy to shuffle scenes around.

‘Mornings are the best time for me to write first

drafts, because this is when my mind is still dreamy and uncritical. But, as for rewrites, any hour of the day will do, because I really love that part of the process. It ’ s the time when I’ m trying to tell the story in the best way I can.

‘Over the years, my writing style has changed, and these days I’ m enjoying writing stories with bigger landscapes. There ’ s always humour in my novels, even when the subject matter is serious. I like writing about community, connection, and also about love in its widest sense.

‘Once a book is finished, my agent usually asks me what the next one will be about. So it ’ s back to constructive daydreaming for me, which is always fun.

‘How do I stay motivated? The encouragement of other writers kept me going in those early days and, to be honest, it still does. I try to pass on that encouragement to those who are still on the path to publication. ‘I’d like to stay with Bookouture because I like the culture. I have an idea for a third historical novel, which again will link the present and the past. The story will be glamorous, dangerous and poignant. I know that writing it will be hard work, but I also know I’ll enjoy the process, because writing always makes me happy.

NORMA’S TOP TIPS

• Choose your genre, so you know which market you’re aiming for. • Enjoy the process, because if you don’t actually enjoy writing, you won’t have the stamina to finish a novel. • When you’re reading Writing

Magazine, pay close attention to the

Writers’ News section, especially the details of upcoming competitions, and any submission and pitching opportunities. This is the best time

ever to be published, so you need to stay informed. • Buy The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook for up-to-date advice, and to find literary agents and publishers who’d be a good fit for you and your work. • Be professional. Format your typescript properly. Most agents and editors will read submissions on a

Kindle, so the correct presentation will give them confidence in you. • If your writing style is similar to

another author’s, be sure to mention it in your covering letter, because this could be a good selling point. • Some writers finally conclude that being a novelist is not for them. But, without exception, and with my hand on my heart, every new writer I met in those early days, and who kept at it, eventually got published. And one day, trust me, so will you. • You haven’t failed until you’ve given up. So don’t give up!

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISE HERE Contact Mark Dean Tel: 01778 395084 or email: mark.dean@warnersgroup.co.uk

Critique & Advisory Competitions

Write your best poem 30 lines or fewer or short story 5 pages max, for a chance to win cash prizes totaling $1275.00!

Extended deadline: September 30, 2022. Enter Now! www.dreamquestone.com

Books

TALL TALES

With a twist

An eclectic mix of intriguing tales.

Michael Church

Available from Amazon.

Visit writers-online.co.uk

BESTSELLING WRITING MAGAZINE HELPING YOU BECOME A BETTER WRITER BESTSELLINGWRITING MAGAZINE

HELPING YOU BECOME A BETTER WRITER

POSITIVE effects

How life changes your writing, and vice versa Writing for therapy… and beyond

your novelNAVIGATEHow to...

Self-publishing Get A+ sales on Amazon

WIN£27,785 IN WRITING PRIZES IS YOUR WRITING ANY GOOD?

How to answer the trickiest question we ask ourselves

WIN£48,305IN WRITING PRIZES

How to write a Stuart MacBride AUTHOR INTERVIEW The secrets of Lisa Jewell’s chart-topping success best seller Tackling dark crime with a light touch

SELL YOUR WORK! Cosy crime and clergy

ADVERTISE HERE

For more information contact: mark.dean@ warnersgroup.co.uk

Get exclusive content from our experts, special offers and the latest opportunities and news