Just off a Far North main highway, among rolling rolls dotted with veggies and vines, a serious crime is being committed this very moment. Even better, and spicing things up a bit, throw in a rash romance with a handsome stranger.
It sounds theatrical and in a way it is because slaving over a keyboard to create these scenes is Fiona Gillibrand, a prolific and very successful storyteller, the author of fictional romance and thriller books published out of America and Canada. She is the archetypal local lass made good while still remaining remarkably under the local public radar, possibly because her nom de plume is Fiona Brand and unless you know what she does for a living you might not make the connection.
She was born in the long-gone maternity hospital in Kaikohe into a farming family of avid readers. Fiona felt like a limb had been severed if she didn't have a book in hand, even walking between rooms she says, so perhaps an authorial career was pre-determined. As a young girl she thought writing short stories was something she could do in life but she never imagined writing an entire book. She began working life as a clerk with the old Forest Service, then married and had two boys. When they started school, she started writing and anyone who thinks sending off a manuscript is all it takes to get published is seriously misguided. If the writing process isn't exhausting enough, having an editor approve one's work is even tougher and in many ways more debilitating. It took her five years to get published.
"You can't do a degree in romance writing, you are on your own and there is nobody else to rely on. I found out who publishes and then looked at the guidelines on how to submit a manuscript. You get a query letter and if they like it they ask for a book synopsis and the first three chapters. Then if they like that, they will ask for the full manuscript and then the acquisitions team will make a decision, based on whether they think they will make money out of it."
And being accepted can depend on the fickle finger of fate. If your book's topic happens to coincide with a number of other authors submitting their manuscripts at the same time, you could be out of luck.
