As publication day for Wanderers approaches, and as it dawns on me that I might actually be A Writer, it feels a good time to say something of the people who helped get me here. This will be A Thread, but hopefully not a tedious one.

Without the advice and encouragement of the reader from @TLCUK I don’t know if I’d have kept going through the rejections. Not only did I get great feedback on my reading, but I was also offered invaluable advice about the publishing world and how to move in it. Thank you.

I still hadn’t placed the book when I went on maternity leave. After it looked like the book had a home, I became ill with #PostNatalDepression. I had no idea how to reconcile who I had been with what my life now was. I was suicidal. And then I met Julie at Nurture the Borders

At the same time I was placed with a specialist counsellor through PND Borders. Colette and Julie, and later my befriender Natalie helped pull me out of the pit. I started to feel the urge to write.

I was finally able to tackle the editor’s feedback, and I spent the mornings before my son woke writing what is now Chapter 1. Writing again was the best possible therapy. I gradually recovered.

All the while I had friends reading sections, offering advice, supporting my recovery and making my writing better. Wanderers has my name on it, but it wouldn’t exist had so many people not helped me. Thank you.