Jennifer's ripping yarn
She waited 67 years to start her writing career. But Valleys first-time author Jennifer Morgan tells Michelle Byrne that sticking to it pays off.
First-time novelist Jennifer Morgan remembered the suspense and excitement she felt reading adventure stories as a young girl in the 1940s and wanted to give today's youngsters that same heart-racing, page-turning feeling. So she set to work writing a "ripping yarn" full of mystery and adventure to stir the hearts of young readers.
By the time she had finished A Wind From The Sea, a number of years later, her swashbuckling adventure story had become a beautifully researched and historially detailed tale of friendship - with plenty of intrigue and mystery thrown in for good measure.
Based, in part, on the lives of past family members, Jennifer's first novel opens in Liverpool in 1833, where the docks community is shocked to discover a dead black woman lying in the Mersey. From her the story of friendship between Welsh girl Patience and black slave Xanthe unfolds, as they journey with the drivers from Liverpool to north Wales to escape and find freedom. Jennifer, born in Newbridge in the South Wales Valleys, says that reading has formed a big part of her life since she was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of five and missed out on years of formal education. Instead of going to school she was taught to read and write by her grandmother and devoured th books that lined every wall of her home.
Growing up in Wales has had such an impact on my writing," she said. "The history of my Welsh farming family and the stories my parents used to tell me as a child gave me the idea for the novel."
Now based in Malvern, having lived all over Wales until the 1960s, Jennifer said: "In my heart I still, and will always, live in Wales." Jennifer said that she is notorious for not finishing things, but was determined to complete her first novel. "I had done so much research for this book over the years that not finishing it would have been a waste, so I persisted. It was both a pleasure and an endurance test," she said. "I didn't write this book with the intention of making money, I didn't even think that it would be published. I wrote A Wind From The Sea with the intention of entertaining youngsters. I've been told by some young that they really enjoyed reading the story, which was wonderful to hear and made all my hard work worthwhile."
The 67-year-old confessed: "I couldn't put books down when I was 12 or 13, part of me is still that young." Far from resting on her laurels, Jennifer has already begun work on her next novel which sees heroine Patience travelling from Wales to work in the market gardens in London - something Welsh garden girls used to do every year.
Wind From The Sea is published by Gomer Books.
It's never too late
Jennifer Morgan's advice for budding first-time writers.
- Get your first sentance down, you can always change it later. Getting something on paper or on screen will ease your mind.
- Give yourself a deadline to give you direction and focus, even if you need more time by the end of it.
- Invest time and energy into your writing, even if it is just a hobby, it will pay off when you have finished your book.
- Do your research, it makes the plot more believable.
- Give it a go, there aren't many people who can say they have written a book, even if it does not get published, you will always have the satisfaction of knowing you have done it.