Katrina Diamond talks about inspiration, communication and moving on with writing. Her second novel, The Secret, is out now.
I am in the process of moving house, into a much smaller house with my family, right on the other side of town. This has caused me to go through all of my paperwork and generally everything we own as we have to get rid of at least half of our stuff. As I was going through the paperwork I found a piece of paper, over a decade old. It was an email I had received from a writer in response to a message I had sent him online. I thought back to the time when I wrote the message to the writer and what a different person I was back then. I was still living in one bedroom of my in-laws’ house with my husband (then boyfriend) and son in East London and I had dreams of one day becoming a writer. I was around 25 at that time and I had a very small child. In fact that was when I started to write. I was very convinced that it was what I was meant to do.
The book I had read moved me so much that I had to find the writer and send him a message telling him how inspiring I found his work. A few days later he responded to me and said he was happy that I got something from his books, and he wished me well. I had pretty much forgotten about it until the other day when I found the email. I have been writing all the time since then: loads of different projects and lots of stories and ideas, some good, some bad. I can’t even begin to tell you how many half-filled notebooks I have floating around the house. I can’t throw any of those away! It wasn’t until we moved into this house three years ago that I started writing a novel with the intention of getting it published. I realised when I looked at the email from this author that I am in a similar place now to where he was when I sent him the email, and that kind of blew my mind.
It gave me a real sense of possibility, seeing the email again. I would never have dreamed when I wrote the email to that author that I would in fact be a Sunday Times bestseller one day. It made me realise that there is still so much possibility ahead of me. I have had numerous messages from people who have read my book and felt inspired to write themselves; I even had some handwritten fan mail from a woman who was 66 years old and had never reached out to an author before. I was very humbled and continue to be surprised at the response to my books. I look forward to seeing where I will be in another five years, because now I know anything is possible.
The Secret
Katerina Diamond
Out Now
Paperback
9780008172213
RRP £7.99
When Bridget Reid wakes up in a locked room, terrifying memories come flooding back – of blood, pain, and desperate fear. Her captor knows things she’s never told anyone. How can she escape someone who knows all of her secrets?
As DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles search for Bridget, they uncover a horrifying web of abuse, betrayal and murder right under their noses in Exeter.
And as the past comes back to haunt her, Grey must confront her own demons. Because she knows that it can be those closest to us who hurt us the most…
