Law- Reading Between The Lines

30th June, 2008

I’ve a confession to make – I’m moonlighting. Not content with working 25 hours a week for LawCare, I have been putting in some hours late at night on my second career, and it has come to fruition. My third novel will be published in August. (Hopefully – there are some issues with the contract I have with the publisher of my first two novels which may delay things somewhat. Anyone know a good lawyer?)

Much as I love working for LawCare (and you know that I do, because I have said as much here – try to keep up) I have wanted to be an “authoress” ever since my mother had told me that’s what lady writers are called. My life’s ambition was to get a novel published, and in 2000 I did. (This left me in need of a new life’s ambition, and I selected “Finish painting the bedroom”. As yet I have not achieved this.)

I thought writing one book would be enough, but then I found I yearned to write another. So I did. And then other ideas for novels came along, so I wrote those too. I had always assumed that if you have had one book published, or even two, as I had, then you could pretty much write anything and “they” would publish it. Not so – my next three efforts were all rejected, leaving me feeling a bit of a fraud as a writer. My first two books are out of print, but if you scour EBay and Amazon for long enough you might find one.

The wisdom of my childhood career plan is now extremely clear to me. What better life could there be than sitting at home watching plotlines develop under your fingertips, bringing life to characters and being master of their destiny. Not only that, but you bring entertainment and pleasure to lots of good people and some of them, if you’re very lucky, write to tell you so. It still thrills me that I have an email folder called “Fan Mail”.

Oh yes, and you get paid a bit. That’s quite nice too. Although I worked out that if I am ever to give up my day job at LawCare then I would need to write five books a year in order to make enough money to live on. Given my current track record of one book for every thirteen years of my life, I think I have some ground to make up.

I still want to be an Authoress when I grow up, but in the meantime I am perfectly content helping lawyers to find their dream careers and realise all their ambitions...

LawCare’s free and confidential helpline is available 9-7.30 Monday-Friday, 10-4 weekends, on:
0800 279 6888 (Solicitors, Law Students and Legal Executives in England and Wales)
0800 279 6869 (Solicitors, Advocates and Law Students in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man)
0800 018 4299 (Barristers, Barristers Clerks and Judges in England and Wales)
1800 991801 (Solicitors in the Republic of Ireland.