My very first guest on The Late Bloomer Author podcast, and what a way to start.

Fiona Leitch grew up in working class South London. Not the kind of place, she'll tell you herself, where people become novelists. Her parents weren't discouraging, creativity just wasn't really a consideration. You went to school, you got a job, you got married, you had kids. That was the path. And for a long time Fiona followed it, office jobs, accountancy courses, all the sensible things she was supposed to do.

But she was always creative. Her teachers saw it. She saw it. And eventually she found her way into screenwriting, a sideways step toward what she actually wanted.

Then a friend read one of her scripts and said: that would make a really good novel.
Fiona had never thought about turning a screenplay into a novel. Fifty thousand words felt completely daunting. But she already had a fleshed-out outline, she just hadn't realised it. She sat down. She started writing. She loved it. Three weeks later she had a book.

That book, Dead in Venice, became a finalist for the Audible Crime Grant. She found an agent. The paperback followed. And now Fiona writes the Jodie Parker cosy mystery series for HarperCollins. Thirteen books published. Book 14, No Way to Die, out this September. A brand new series, The Travelling Detective, launching in April next year.

In this conversation we talk about growing up where the creative life felt out of reach, finding your way to the thing you actually want, what the publishing journey really looks like from debut to HarperCollins deal, writing across genres and pen names, and why she thinks writers genuinely come into their own later in life. We also talk about her mum, who Fiona thinks she gets her writing from, and who may now be inspired to write her own book.

Oh, and there's the small matter of being (unjustly) thrown out of a TV studio by John Craven in the 1980s. Fiona has never quite forgiven him.

If you've ever told yourself your story isn't interesting enough, or that the window has closed, or that people like you don't write books, this episode is for you.
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QUOTES

🗣 From this episode:
"I had the screenplay, so it was like I had this really well fleshed out outline already to work from. I sat down, I started writing, I loved it. It took me three weeks." — Fiona Leitch, Episode 11

✍️ This week's writing inspiration:
"Start before you're ready." — Steven Pressfield