Lynda Renham’s Publication Journey
Lynda Renham’s Publication Journey
Welcome to Lynda Renham’s Publication Journey, another in the occasional series of guest posts by authors who reveal their journey to getting published.
Her latest novel The Girl In The Wood is published by Bloodhound Books.
Over to Lynda:
My Publication Journey
I can't remember a time when I didn't write. I was about seven when I wrote a poem about my rabbit. My parents used to buy me a children's magazine called Harold Hare. I chose to call my rabbit Harold and wrote the poem, which my father sent to the magazine, and they published it.
I often got into trouble at school for writing stories under the desk during lessons I disliked. I remember watching a TV series called Peyton Place (I’m showing my age here) and decided to write my own version titled ‘The Happenings in Beechwood.’ I would write in notebooks under the desk, until a teacher caught me and confiscated my five notebooks.
Later I wrote a novel and submitted it to a well-known publisher. They rejected it because they had just accepted a new author and their policy was to accept one new author a year.
Undeterred, I continued writing and submitting and still have all the rejection letters I received.
I then married and sadly the marriage wasn’t a good one. I was also holding down several jobs. I didn’t write again for the next 15 years and had no plans to do so. I was at the sink or swim stage in my life. Finally, we got divorced and the next few years were quite hard. Then I met my now husband who saw some of my old manuscripts and encouraged me to write again. So, I did. Again, came the rejection letters until one day I decided to write a different genre, one that people seemed to like. ‘Croissants and Jam’ was the first of my romantic comedies, which I self-published and to my surprise, it shot to the top of the charts. I went on to write ten more comedies and all did really well.
Then, I decided to change genre. I had this idea that I wanted to write, and it turned out to be ‘Remember Me’, a domestic noir thriller, which now has 7.900 reviews in the US and the UK.
Two years ago, a commissioning editor from Bloodhound Books publishers contacted me and asked if they could reissue my thrillers. ‘Remember Me.’ ‘Watching You’ ‘The Lies She Told’ and ‘Secrets and Lies’ were reissued and did very well. My latest novel with them ‘The Girl In the Woods’ was released at the end of last year.
About Lynda
Lynda was born into a working class family in Essex. She went on to teach The Holocaust and the history of the Nazi era. She later wrote for News Agencies on a variety of issues from the Israeli/Palestinian situation to Parental Alienation.
She can read Hebrew fluently.
She studied the writings of Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch, later forming a friendship with Murdoch’s husband who critiqued her work and gave her the confidence to write novels again.
She has studied creative writing with the Open University.
She remarried and moved to Oxfordshire where she lives in the Cotswolds with her second husband. She has spoken on BBC radio about her experiences of being a childless woman not by choice.
Her latest novel ‘The Girl In The Woods’ is published by Bloodhound Books.
Lynda’s Books
Lynda’s most recent novel:
‘The Girl in the Woods’, published by Bloodhound Books.
‘Starting again isn’t easy. Revisiting the past can be deadly…
Ana, who now lives in a small Oxfordshire village, came from Liverpool carrying a secret. Her life is now on the straight and narrow and she has a blossoming career as a policewoman.
But when a vigilante starts to practise their own kind of justice on her watch, and then a body is discovered in the woods, Ana’s contentment is shattered as the past comes flooding back to haunt her.
Soon Ana must make a choice - Turn her back on the girl she used to be or embrace the bitterness and rage she has buried for so long…
‘Remember Me’, published by Bloodhound Books.
‘A young mother befriends a new neighbour—but soon finds her an unwelcome presence, in this psychological thriller with a powerful twist.
Sharni and her husband have just moved into 24 The Pines, and they appear to be ideal new neighbours to Clare and Chris. Sharni seems especially fond of Clare. She admires her and is always there to help, especially with childcare for Clare’s two-year-old son.
But Clare is starting to wonder whether Sharni just wants to be a good neighbour—or wants something more. Like Clare’s husband. Or her child. Or her life. And her anxiety starts to build every time Sharni comes near.
Is she just being overprotective, or are her worries justified? As Sharni’s influence touches everyone around her, Clare finds herself fighting for both her sanity and her family…
‘Watching You’, published by Bloodhound Books.
He’s out there somewhere—maybe right behind her . . . A heart-pounding new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Remember Me.
Ewan Galbreith is out of prison. And Libby Owen is scared.
Fifteen years ago, Libby saw Galbreith murder her aunt and uncle. Now, she knows he’s coming for her, haunted by his last words before incarceration: I'll be out one day, and then you’ll all be sorry.
With Galbreith free, every footstep behind Libby and every face she sees is a threat. The police have assured her Galbreith would be thrown back in prison if he came within a hundred yards of her, but would that stop him? Libby has her doubts—Ewan Galbreith doesn’t go back on anything he says.
He is watching her, and Libby knows it’s only a matter of time before he decides to act…
‘The Lies She Told’, published by Bloodhound Books.
‘A quiet village. A close-knit community... a killer among them.
A brutal attack in a quiet village sets one police detective against another in this thriller by the bestselling author of Remember Me.
In the quiet Cotswold village where DS Beth Harper has lived for most of her life, the crime rate is extremely low, and that’s how everyone likes it. Then, soon after her new boss, DI Tom Miller, arrives from London, a local schoolteacher is brutally attacked and left for dead in her home. The victim—a friend of Beth’s—remembers nothing.
Beth finds herself clashing with Tom and worrying that a recent tragedy will affect his judgement as a police officer. But there may be an even bigger question: Is it a burglary gone wrong that’s turned the village upside down—or could the violence be connected to something far more deadly?’
How to contact Lynda
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lynda.Renham
Author page https://www.facebook.com/lyndarenhamauthor
Instagram @lyndarenham
Tiktok @catlady
More Publication Journeys
I hope you enjoyed Lynda Renham’s Publication Journey. Here are links to other authors who share their Publication Journey stories on this blog: