Yes, I know it’s now become a running joke that I take each and every opportunity to plug my book, but can you blame me? If you can’t promote it yourself, who’s going to do it for you? I’ve learnt this the hard way and I’m now not ashamed to throw a plug around here and there. And it’s working… it now becomes a “WHAT?!” moment when someone doesn’t know I wrote a book. Because I did, you know? Grace on the Court in all good bookstores…
Writing is something that started off as a hobby and has fast become a passion and something I hope to pursue as a career post-netball. For those very few of you who haven’t heard the story of how I wrote my first book before, I’ll give you a brief (okay, long) rundown. I had always loved writing, inspired by my mum who is a journalist and English being one of my favourite subjects at school. I would write short stories and my dad would always make up bedtime stories of “Morris, Mildred & Molly” - three monkeys living in Africa. So writing and creativity was something I was brought up with.
It wasn’t until the end of 2013 that I properly started thinking about writing a book. I had just returned from Europe after representing Australia at the 21/Under World Youth Cup and a two-month stint travelling with a good friend and had some spare time on my hands. Netball was finished for the year, I had deferred uni for the semester and I didn’t have a job. I started playing around with the idea of Grace Parker and the Linwood Lions. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I’d spend hours in my bedroom or outside in our front garden, ferociously tapping away at my keyboard. I kept it a secret at first, not telling anyone what I was doing. But it was Mum who wore me down. She kept asking and I finally caved in, giving her the first few chapters to read, bracing myself at the embarrassment of sharing my work with someone, even my mum. But to my surprise, she loved it. She was the one who suggested I try and get it published and this is when I started to get really excited. I wrote faster and more often, finishing the first copy of the manuscript in just months.
But then there was the question - how do I get it published? I submitted it to a few different publishers’ ‘Manuscript Monday’s’ where anyone could send their work on a particular day of the month. But I never heard anything back. I half gave up, thinking it obviously wasn’t good enough to get published. But then my mum interviewed a long-lost great aunty who also happened to be a famous author (and has recently been referred to as a ‘national treasure’). Jill (or Kate Llewellyn as she’s known in the literary world) told me I needed to get an agent. Just like in sport, you need someone to represent you and sell you to the publishers. She put me in contact with someone she knew and luckily enough she liked the book and took me on board as a client. Next thing I know, I’m screaming at my computer at work one day when I received an email saying it was going to be published. It was probably one of the best days of my life. To think that something I wrote, that came from my mind, was going to be out in the world for people to read was almost impossible to imagine.
Since Grace on the Court has been released, I’ve been overwhelmed with the response I have had from readers. While it’s not on the best-seller list (yet) and I’m still waiting on the call up to make it into a movie, just seeing young girls with the book in their hand gives me the greatest sense of achievement and pride. And it’s even greater when I receive messages on social media or speak to fans after games and they tell me they loved the book, or read it cover to cover in a single night. But I still can’t top the feeling I got when I saw that girls had dressed up as Grace for Book Week at school. This was when it really hit me: I’d created a character, from my mind, that had had such an impact on these young girls that they had decided to dress up as her out of any other character from a book in the whole world.
The transition from primary school to high school is probably the most critical time in a young girls’ life. There are so many changes, pressures and stresses that you go through in your early teenage years. You are discovering who you are and who you want to be. For me, sport was a huge part in helping me find myself and what I wanted out of my life. It helped me make friends and learn some of the most important life lessons of team work, resilience and dedication. It also helped me escape from the pressures of high school. If I can help one girl or boy who reads Grace on the Court get through this time in their lives, I’ll have achieved what I wanted to out of writing the book. I know it’s not going to change lives, but if I can encourage one person to play sport or pick up a book, I’ll be a very happy girl.
So please, if you haven’t already, head to my ‘shop’ and treat yourself to a copy of Grace on the Court. It may not change your life, but it might make you happy for a few hours a day. And don’t worry, there’s a second one coming soon.
Happy reading,
Maddy x