Sasha Wagstaff, author of Changing Grooms and Wicked Games, has written us a post on how she became a writer! Enjoy…

I first wanted to become a writer when I was a child…but I also fancied myself as an actress and a pop star so it wasn’t really something I worried about too much. My love of reading never waned, however, and when I eventually completed my degree and ended up working in the City in banking, I would devour novels on my commute into London. Out of the nowhere, an idea for a novel came to me and I started to jot down my ideas. I worked at home on an old lap top but I did most of my writing on the train to and from work and eventually, shaping this novel began to take over my life.

I was certain my banking background would count against me; the majority of authors I’d read out came from a writing environment in some way. They were usually journalists and they tended to have a degree in English Literature or Language. I felt really intimidated by my lack of writing ‘pedigree’ – I did have a degree in languages but as they were French and Russian, I wasn’t sure that mattered too much!

To cut a long story short, it seems that changing careers so dramatically makes me stand out in the crowd a bit. Odd, but true! I consider myself very lucky to be able to make stories up for a living and would encourage anyone who has a dream of becoming a published author to go for it…whatever job you do right now.

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