Co-authors: Diane Hope & Martin Simmons, Hampshire and Dorset

We met at a U3A Creative Writing Group in Basingstoke three years ago and did actually start writing our novel, in the same county!

We had a shared love of writing and a little experience. 

 Diane had short stories published in various women’s magazines as well as some success with short stories and flash fiction completions, and was working on a novel as well as a memoir of her South London childhood in the 50s. 

Martin had co-written a psychology self-help book published by Winslow Press in 1993 and a first novel, Brainwaves, about a man seeking his identity after a brain transplant (available on Amazon). Shortly, he will be publishing a second novel, Eden is Burning, set against a forest fire in France.

 Writing can be a lonely experience so,  having critiqued each other’s pieces, usually short stories and flash fiction, Martin suggested writing a novel together. ‘It will be fun,’ he said, so Mariane Ditin was created, and we began.  Write what you know seems to be the received wisdom and, as we both know about aging, the highs and the lows, we set our characters in their 60s. We floated lots of ideas and slowly, Ella and Alain came into being.  Following the ‘write what you know’ dictum, we used real incidents to bring our characters to an A & E department where they meet and are attracted to each other … inconveniently! Oh yes, I should say, it is a romance but also explores aging and end-of-life issues as well as relationships between families and friends.  

We had a rough idea of the story and started to write. Our writing process was simple. I wrote a chapter, and then Martin followed on with the next chapter. It worked really well, each having a vested interest and eager to see what the other had written, thus saving our long-suffering partners the chore of reading each draft. 

 It worked really well until Martin moved to Bridport!  Then shortly after that, I moved house too, although I at least stayed in the same county.

This hiatus did slow things down considerably, but thanks to modern technology, we could share documents, edit each other’s work, and leave comments and suggestions – very politely at first, becoming more forthright as our story evolved. 

 Eventually, we got to the end only to discover that the writing had been the easy part. What followed was a marathon of editing, rewriting, and editing again… and again… and again.

Realising we needed help, we invested in a structural edit. This proved invaluable, and encouraging feedback gave us the confidence to keep going. After many more revisions, we were finally ready to seek an agent.

 Surely they’d be queuing up? 

 Sadly, this was not the case. After six months of rejections – or complete silence - we decided to publish ourselves and found it is surprisingly easy, and FREE, which probably accounts for the 25,000 books published every week. 

 But now, after 3 years our book is out there. 

 If you liked Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, we think you will like our story.  It explores the same topical issue of assisted dying but with a light touch, even moments of humour, all wrapped in a tender, later life romance. It is the story of Ella and Alain, their fateful meeting, the decisions they face and the difficult choices they make.  The first 6 chapters are available in a free sample, and if these pique your interest, we hope you will want to read more.

Thank you for reading about our co-writing journey. If you check out our book, we hope you enjoy it—and perhaps even leave a review.

Diane and Martin

Email: marianeditin@gmail.com