Kathleen Jones: A Fictional Dilemma

A couple of years ago I wrote a novel. Nothing remarkable about that. But when I told my (then) agent, it seemed a species of crime - a biographer writing a novel? Apparently it wasn’t what people wanted from me. But it was a book I loved writing and felt very comfortable with.

The novel is set in the 1930s and is about two girls, displaced by the political and economic shifts that preceded World War 2. Anna Weissmann is the daughter of a Bavarian hotelier and his English wife; Tamar Fell’s mother is the feckless, good-time-girl Sadie and a father who [Tamar’s been told] died before she was born. Both girls arrive in the north of England, with their mothers, at the same time and, although very different personalities, they become friends. Tamar loves books and escapes her dreadful home-life by spending time in the Carnegie library; Anna is determined to become a painter and fights stereotypes and lack of money to get the training she needs. The outbreak of war in 1939 alters their plans and sends them in unexpected directions, Anna into the secret services via an internment camp and Tamar into the Land Army. The novel follows their relationship for about six years, until Tamar’s marriage in 1942.

Cover Idea - working title only

The elevator pitch goes something like this- ‘Two girls exiled from their homes overcome the dislocations and tragedies of war by a friendship that will last all their lives and replace the families they have lost.’


When I wrote it I felt rather unsure about how others would view the style and content - I felt utterly confident about my narrative technique in biography but wasn’t so confident in fiction. So I sent it to a good editorial agency used by my own agent and others as a reader and literary scout. I got a glowing report and very few edits were suggested, which pleased me a great deal. Friends and family who read the book were equally enthusiastic. My agent less so. It was, apparently, between genres - too well written (I quote) for a saga, and too saga-ish for literary fiction. Not having a great deal of confidence in my own abilities as a novelist I simply accepted her verdict, though it was a huge dent in my writerly ego. Then my agent went on maternity leave, I changed agents and everything got shelved while I finished another biography.

Earlier this year I took the novel out of its box and had another look. And I still liked what I read. Could my former agent have been wrong? The peer review site ‘You Write On’ was having a big trawl called ‘The Next Big Author’ promising referral to publishers for the best novels and I decided to expose my book to readers - anonymously - on the You Write On site.

The result was very interesting. I had to read an enormous number of novel chapters and stories (some absolutely dreadful) by other people in order to earn credits to get reviews of my own first three chapters, but it began to be worth it as I got more and more five star, rave reviews for them, many of which ended with a request to read the whole thing. At the end of the month it was in the top five of You Write On’s ‘bestseller’ chart - which included two other novels (one of them for children) and two short stories - and it's still number four in their saga chart. I qualified for a critique by Orion which I had hoped might be helpful, but it simply said, great story, very well written, good luck with this.

So where do I go now? Do I take my manuscript and my courage in both hands and send it to my current agent? Or do I simply bypass the process and publish myself on Kindle? That’s the dilemma!


www.kathleenjones.co.uk
www.kathleenjonesauthor.blogspot.com

Other books on Kindle by Kathleen Jones
A Passionate Sisterhood:  The Sisters, Wives and Daughter of the Lake Poets

Christina Rossetti:  Learning Not to be First

Three and Other Stories