Friday Friend - Glynis Smy

Glynis Smy was born in England, in the coastal town of Dovercourt, near Harwich. Essex. She left town to nurse in London, and lived there for the first few months of her marriage. The newlyweds moved to Lavenham in Suffolk, and started their family. Three children, two pharmacies, a nursing career later, Glynis is now free to write. Emigrating to Cyprus with her husband in 2005 enabled her to concentrate on writing poetry, little did she know where it would lead.

How do I describe how I went from nursing to writing novels?

Having always kept my poems in a drawer, I decided to celebrate my fiftieth birthday by publishing them in a book. My birthday gift to me. This was followed by a second. I received an email from a writer who told me how much she enjoyed reading my work and had purchased both books. An on-line friendship formed, and for three years, five months, Jan Harper and I communicated every day. And I mean, every day. She encouraged me to write articles and advertisements for various sites, but each day she asked for a poem.

One day I surprised her and wrote a short story. In a flurry of excitement in a typo ridden email, Jan exclaimed it would be better as a novel, and if I ever mentioned her typos to our online writing group, she would delete my email address. I rose to her challenge - and kept her secret. In true Jan style, she encouraged me every step of the way. When I hadn’t heard from my friend for five days, I was concerned, I sent email after email. At the end of the week Jan’s family contacted me. They told me she was in the hospice, and she asked them to let me know time was not on her side, she had hidden her cancer from us all. Sadly I lost my friend, and ironically it was the day I wrote The End on the novel.

Slowly the writing world rallied around me, and drew me into the community. With the support of  author, Talli Roland,  a new writing friend at the time, I found my genre. I love the Victorian era, and get carried away with researching for my novels, often procrastinating for hours on an attractive website or two.

My first novel is now making its debut appearance, and is called, Ripper, My Love. It is an historical romance suspense. It can be purchase on Amazon.com and co. uk. in paperback and Kindle version. Barnes and Noble, Book Depository.com and UK.  The Kindle version is on a special low price for a month: 99c/77p, to celebrate the book launch. It is dedicated to Jan, and her family are still in touch.

I was inspired by Jack the Ripper, and the fact no one to this day knows who he was. 2013 marks 125 years since the notorious murderer made history.

Growing up in late nineteenth century East London, Kitty Harper’s life is filled with danger and death – from her mother, her beloved neighbour and the working women of the streets.

With her ever-watchful father and living surrogate family though, Kitty feels protected from harm. In fact, she feels so safe that while Whitechapel cowers under the cloud of a fearsome murderer, she strikes out on her own, moving into new premises to accommodate her sewing business.

But danger is closer than she thinks. In truth, it has burrowed itself right into her heart in the form of a handsome yet troubled bachelor, threatening everything she holds dear. Will Kitty fall prey to lust – and death – herself, or can she find the strength inside to fight for her business, sanity and her future? And who is the man terrifying the streets of East London?

The book is not written about Jack the Ripper as history portrays him, it shares a personality formed purely from the my imagination. Nor is Jack the lead character. Kitty Harper (note she borrowed my friend’s surname), developed into a determined young woman and pushed her way to the forefront of the story becoming the main character. This feminine, gullible, young woman with the ability to overcome, has now become the style of woman I write about in my novels. My second novel, an historical romance; Maggie’s Child, will be published at Christmas. Novel three, another historical romance; The Man in Room Eighteen, takes me back to  my roots and is based in my UK, hometown.

You can find more about Glynis here:

I run a blog in the memory of my friend. We set it up to help authors showcase their books. New Book Blogger accepts all genres and will accept books published for many years, not just new.

My personal author blog is www. glynissmy. com and I can be found on Twitter at times, and Facebook (author timeline where I play with friends, communicate with writers), Facebook author page. I enjoy Goodreads as another place to pass the time with readers and writers.

When not writing, I create greetings cards to raise funds for a tiny hospice in Paphos. I also enjoy cross stitch and roaming the vineyards with our four dogs. Another favourite pastime is to sit on the back porch under the Cyprus sky with a glass (or two), of village wine, counting my blessings.

Thank you so much for being our Friday Friend, Glynis. We wish you every success in your writing career!