The Book That Changed My Life

This past Monday was the fifth anniversary of the publication of the book that changed my life. 

The Light Over London was a book of firsts. It was my first foray into historical fiction, my first hardcover release, and my first World War 2-set novel. It was the first time a reader has had a quote from one of my books tattooed onto them, a fact which still blows my mind to this day. And although The Light Over London wasn’t my first book—it’s actually my eighth traditionally published novel if you can believe it—it was without a doubt the book that gave me the writing career I have now.

If you haven’t read it yet, The Light Over London is a dual timeline historical novel that follows a young woman named Louise who joins the ATS during World War 2 and finds herself assigned to an anti-aircraft gunning unit as one of the “Ack-Ack Girls.” In the contemporary timeline, Cara is trying to put the pieces of her life back together after a divorce and personal tragedy. When she finds Louise’s diary from the war, it throws up questions about who Louise was and prompts her to look into her own family’s mysterious past.

I’m planning to share the story of how I made the transition from writing historical romance—remember those seven books that I mentioned came before?—to historical novels like The Light Over London soon, but the quick summary is that I had lunch with my agent and my editor in New York while visiting shortly after moving to the UK. During that lunch, my editor told me that she’d put me forward at an editorial meeting to potentially write a historical novel, preferably British- and World War 2-set because the publisher wanted to fill a gap in their list. I was thrilled and eagerly said yes. 

As soon as I was back in London, I got to work. Before my trip, I had read a book that wove the oral histories of three women who served in the British women’s auxiliary forces during the war. I was particularly drawn to the story of an Ack-Ack Girl with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), which was the women’s branch of the British army. From that casual bit of research came the seed of an idea and the pitch that became The Light Over London.

Even now, writing The Light Over London feels like a fever dream. I had only just moved over to the UK a few months before, and I was staying with my parents while I job hunted and finished writing and editing a couple of my historical romance novels under contract. All of the sudden, the book took over my life. My editor told me there was a slot on the publisher’s calendar for the book, but we would have to move fast. Even more urgent was the need to produce the first 100 pages for a quick edit so that they could be ready ahead of a sales conference where my editor would try to create vital internal buzz for the book with the sales team.

I worked hard on that book, writing the first draft (with additional edits for those 100 pages) in about eight weeks. This left me enough time to perform a self-edit, interview for and secure a day job, and celebrate Christmas and New Year with my family. I handed in my draft the day before my new job started at the beginning of January 2018.

The schedule I wrote The Light Over London to was insane, and looking back on the amount of work I did in the time I did it in, I know that there is no way I would have been able to finish it all while working full-time. (I will forever be grateful to my parents for giving me that time and support.) However, I was hungry and focused. Before being approached to write historical fiction, I’d begun to worry that my historical romances weren’t doing well enough to grant me another contract. The Light Over London felt like it was my big break.

And it was. 

After handing in the full manuscript, I could tell that my editor, always enthusiastic and encouraging, was particularly excited about the book. We did a round of developmental edits during which I focused on strengthening the present-day timeline, and then we began to look ahead to marketing, publicity, and sales. The buzz was very positive, even more so when my publisher read an early copy of the book and offered me a contract for two before The Light Over London had seen a single sale. 

Hunting down the British paperback edition in Waitrose after seeing a film.

The Light Over London came out, and I knew that, no matter what happened, I would never be the same author I was before I wrote it. Over the last seven years in publishing, there have been some professional highs—I cried when my agent called me to tell me what my first royalty check from the book was—and some lows—I have been certain that some books would hit a big list like the New York Times bestsellers’  list underperform to the point where it’s almost laughable. 

However, what The Light Over London really gave me was more intangible than that. It was emails from multiple readers telling me that the book had comforted them in difficult times, brought back memories of their wartime childhood, or prompted them to learn more about their own family histories. It was a deep appreciation for the women present in moments of huge historical impact whose stories have been overlooked or under-appreciated. And it was a joy and satisfaction in my work that I have tried to carry with me through all of my books.

Happy anniversary!