£1million contract for author Elizabeth By Julia Gough
Writersworld Newsletter - Issue No. 7
This article is reprinted by kind permission of Writers' Forum, Britain's leading magazine for writers. They can be contacted at Writers International, Suite 28, Wessex House, St. Leonards Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8QS or e-mail [email protected] www.worldwidewriters.com
AFTER 15 years living hand-to-mouth as a full-time writer Elizabeth McGregor has landed a staggering £1 million contract for her latest novel, The Ice Child. The source of her inspiration? A daytime TV show and the story of the ill-fated Franklin expedition dating back to 1847.
The 46-year-old, who lives in Dorchester, admits she's now waiting for a phone call saying it's all a mistake. Despite six psychological thrillers to her credit she had considered herself very much an 'also ran.'
"When the news came it felt like God had taken the edge of the world and shaken it like a carpet," she said.
The Ice Child is poised to become a huge international success with publishing rights selling for record amounts in 16 countries (to many of the same publishers who made The Horse Whisperer a world-wide best-seller 1990s). Film rights are also under negotiation in Hollywood.
The story is an epic journey of faith, courage and a mother's unconditional love.
It tells the tale of Jo Harper, a successful young journalist, who has only her two-year-old son Sam to remind her of her late partner, Doug. When Sam falls seriously ill there is only a slim hope that his step-brother John could be a match for a bone marrow transplant.
John has disappeared, seeking absolution for his part in the accidental death of his father. Tortured by their failed relationship, John has set out alone to fulfil his father's dream to uncover the last traces of Sir John Franklin's infamous 1847 Arctic expedition to find the North West passage.
Uncanny parallels unfold between the crisis facing Sam and the last days of the Franklin crew, plunging Jo into a race against time to save both the life of her son and the soul of her stepson.
Elizabeth McGregor was spurred into writing the epic following the break-up of her 20-year marriage, feeling she wanted to write about unconditional love.
The whole premise of The Ice Child is that love is the only thing you can bequeath that has any lasting value. This was truly underlined when Elizabeth lost her mother while researching the book.
"I wanted to write something I felt passionately about - I wanted to think around courage, endurance and an epic journey."
The Franklin expedition left the UK in 1845 to search for the North West passage through to the Pacific - but the naval explorer and his 130 men vanished without trace.
"Once I started reading about the Franklin story it was fascinating and I felt this was my story.
"Two months into it I was watching City Hospital on BBC TV and they had the Heaton family and their seven-year-old daughter and seven-month-old baby born with aplastic anaemia.
"The seven-year-old had written a letter appealing for bone marrow and by the end of the programme they had received 4,000 calls. Four days later 26,000 people had rung and one was a perfect match for the baby."
While researching The Ice Child, Elizabeth spoke to many families affected by aplastic anaemia and the more she found out about the disease the more she wanted to raise awareness of it and its treatment.
"I knew bone marrow was a very important part of the Franklin story - the modern-day equivalent of an epic journey is endurance through illness.
"I tied the two stories together - thinking of the qualities of the Franklin crew and the Heaton family showing courage through a very dark place.
"There are two parallel story lines - the fictional story of the Franklin expedition is told from the point of view of crew member, Gus, who is 11 years old at the beginning of the journey.
"No boys of that age were on the expedition but I wanted to tell the story through the eyes of someone innocent - the crews were hardened to Arctic life.
"The second story is about a young journalist embroiled in the Franklin story - the man with whom she has a child is a marine archaeologist who is crazy about Franklin.
"Her son needs a bone marrow donor and there is a bone marrow link between the Franklin story and the modern-day story."
She wrote the 135,000-word novel in an incredible 22 weeks - and on the basis of its first two chapters alone she landed contracts in a dozen different countries.
"My marriage broke up in the September and I moved house four days before Christmas. My mum who previously had suffered three strokes, died in February," she explained.
"The book had begun to sell to 12 countries on the basis of two chapters, but I could not begin to sit down to begin writing until March and the contracts gave a delivery date of July 31.
"I managed to write it in 22 weeks and when I look back now I wonder 'who wrote that?'"
An extraordinary 70,000 copies have been published in Italy and 40,000 in the United States.
Elizabeth, who rarely admits she's a writer in her home town because 'people look at you as if you have two heads', is now being called upon to give book signings around Europe.
"It's all extraordinary and I can't quite believe what is happening to me," she says. "I still have this worry that in the middle of the night someone is going to ring and say 'sorry we made a mistake, it's another book."
Elizabeth began writing shortly after her 15-year-old daughter Kate was born.
An avid reader, she studied for an English degree and has worked as a hopelessly bored but solvent civil servant, a teacher and an antiques dealer before writing full-time.
"My daughter was eight weeks old when my husband got a job in Germany. My neighbour had a child the same age - she was an artist and we both said we had no time for ourselves. We agreed that if one of us looked after the children for the day the other could do something.
"Women's Own had a short story competition so on my day off I wrote a story and it won the competition.
"I thought: 'This is easy - I can do this" but it was another year before I did."
A fan of horror writers such as Stephen King she wrote about 100 short stories before attempting to write her first psychological thriller. It took a year to complete - each thriller comprised 90,000 words - compared to five months she spent on The Ice Child.
Elizabeth has also written two comedy novels under the pseudonym Holly Fox. The first of these, This Way Up, comes out in print this September.
"I wrote the comedies because I didn't want to inhabit the dark world of psychological thrillers any more - living in that sort of world for six years is quite depressing.
"I wrote the comedies for my own entertainment and my agent thought they were entertaining too.
"But I also wanted to write something I felt passionately about - the other two were very much for the market."
Her advice to would-be writers is 'determination is just as important as talent.'
"I know exactly what it's like to be on that side of the fence.
"I was a full-time writer but living very much hand-to-mouth and I could paper the house with the rejection slips I had.
"I know how people feel who are trying to break in and you really have to stick with it.
"You need a skin like a rhinoceros and keep on keeping on - eventually miracles happen and it could be just around the corner."
There is a desperate shortage of bone marrow donors - to join a nation-wide register contact your GP or the Anthony Nolan Trust at www.anthonynolan.com
