For all of you who have dreamt of writing, I had the great pleasure in speaking to a lovely lady, Gabrielle Kimm author of His Last Duchess and The Courtesans Lover. Gaby spoke about how to find an agent, trials and tribulations on how to become a published writer and many more interesting topics.

Please tell the readers a little about yourself. What started you off wanting to write?

I first knew I wanted to write a novel when I was twelve.   I wrote all sorts of things throughout my teens and twenties (short stories, poems, articles etc), but didn’t feel confident enough to tackle a full-length novel for many years – not until my younger daughter started school, in fact.  At that point, I began to feel I could indulge what was fast becoming less of a wish to write a novel, and more of a need.

I did an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester between 2005 and 2007.  This was a revelation!  Not just because the tuition was absolutely wonderful, which it was, but because for the first time I was working with people who really understood what it’s like to be pretty well obsessed with a desire to write.  I suppose doing the course validated all the time and effort I was putting into my writing at this point – it certainly gave me confidence to know that the tutors (writers whom I admired a great deal) thought that what I was producing was OK.

The inspiration for my first novel – His Last Duchess – came from a Robert Browning poem (My Last Duchess), which I had first met and loved as an undergraduate.  Continue reading →