Jack Dunnill was settling in nicely to retirement when a cruise trip gave him an idea and inspiration to write his first novel. Here is his story.
I have just had a book published... a romantic, comedy, crime novel 'Dancing with the Captain'.
Nothing very unusual about that, I am sure you are probably saying. Perhaps not, except that I am now 73 and it is the first book I have ever written or even attempted to write.
I suppose I epitomise the 'it's never too late to try' syndrome. Or perhaps, you could say 'it's never too late to get down to it'.
After all it is ten years since I retired from the world of newspapers. So what changed? I literally dreamed up the 'whodunit' element some time ago but never got round to doing anything about it. Then my wife Beryl and I booked a Transatlantic cruise from Genoa to Buenos Aires in late 2008 and I thought... why not combine the two factors? Cruising and mystery?
Even so, it was three months before I finally sat down at the computer... and ten months more before it was published. The process does take that long.
My book contains no foul or obscene language, no graphic or explicit sex and no gratuitous violence. Tabloid reporter Alan Hale is the hero and his paper’s former entertainments’ writer Kate Hammond, now leader of a glamorous cruise ship dancing team, is the heroine.
People ask how easy it was to find a publisher. I would have liked to say it was third time lucky... but, to be strictly accurate, it was fourth in the end. You are initially asked to submit three chapters, usually the first three.
I had a 'not our kind of book' reply from one, a 'possibly, but we would want you to rewrite it on these lines' from another, while the third said 'please send whole manuscript'.
Later I received a letter from a fourth, apologising for the delay and stating 'our editors are still arguing over whether we can take the chance'. Too late.
You also need help and encouragement from a partner. My wife is both my biggest supporter and critic. I went down to the pub while she read it for the first time. If she had said it was a 'No-No', I would probably have dumped it. But she was both enthusiastic and helpful, indicating where certain things could be given more stress or a harder edge and later with grammar and proof-reading.
I have been a career journalist and we have lived in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, the BBC’s 'Summer Wine' town for most of our adult lives. We have two daughters, Jenny, now living on South Coast, and Debbie, living locally.
Dancing with the Captain by Jack Dunnill (£9.99) is available from Amazon and all leading bookstores.
ISBN: 978-1849630108
