New novel explores diverging paths and infertility

As Kerry, aged 38, says: “The story follows a group of four female friends as they enter their thirties and their lives start to really diverge for the first time. Personally, I found the majority of my friends were roughly on the same page throughout our twenties when it came to major life events, but things changed significantly in our thirties.

“I was particularly interested in exploring the decision to have children – where it stems from – and how opposing paths could lead to ruptures within a friendship group. I think most women will relate to some of the societal pressures that arise during the decade: careers, house-owning; children etc, and hopefully enjoy the story!

“I started writing as a sort of cathartic exercise during fertility treatment (she now has two children both born through IVF). I tend to read books that I can relate to, and, at the time, I felt there was a lack of realistic representation of infertility within books and film. I loved Emily Pine’s extract in Notes to Self, and I guess in some ways that inspired me to start writing, drawing on my own experience.

“I found it really comforting being able to control the narrative and decide what happened to the characters at a time when I felt I had little control over my own life. The story flowed quite easily, and once I had about 15k words, I decided to really give it a shot, and signed up to a three-month novel writing course with Curtis Brown Creative.

“I had absolutely no experience or knowledge of the publishing industry and didn’t write the book with a particular audience in mind, but I think it’ll definitely appeal more to female readers, particularly in their 20s/30s/40s although I’ve just had an absolutely lovely review come through from someone in their 70s – so who knows!

“The story itself is stand alone, but I signed a two-book deal so am currently working on a new project. I started writing the book in 2020.”