My first book birthday! By Kathryn Barnett
- monmouthwritersgro
- Aug 10, 2020
- 4 min read
On 11th August my novel; Trust Me On This One, Emily, turns one! Having my debut novel published and as my book tackles the important topic of thalidomide, the journey has been something of an emotional rollercoaster for me. ‘Emily,’ wasn’t my first novel that I wrote. I had been trying to secure publication for my family saga for a number of years when in 2015 I came up with the idea of writing a novel on thalidomide.
Writing the novel presented many challenges. The story of thalidomide; left me in tears. I was mentally tired and even thought about holding back on the manuscript. I was studying for an OU module in creative writing at the time and considered it might be a manuscript to submit to the university at a later date. But something kept saying inside of me that this story needs to get out there and after five months of querying, I had a publisher interested in my book.
My novel is the inspirational story of one mother bringing up her disabled son in 1960s Brighton. I chose that setting because the sea is so important to me. It has always inspired my writing and I live by the coast myself. Brighton with its bohemian feel seemed the ideal setting for my novel, which featured homeopathy at a time when alternative medicine wasn’t as well-known as it is today.
I first got interested in homeopathy about twenty years ago. My boyfriend then was a doctor, but he had signed up for a course in Traditional Chinese Medicine. We started to have discussions about natural medicine and the interest grew from there. I was drawn to homeopathy because of its personal approach to medicine. I liked the way the psychological aspect of the case is at the heart of choosing a suitable remedy to match the patient.
In writing my novel, I did some reading up on trauma remedies. I would often think which ones match Emily and Sylvia’s personality because the two mums took such a different approach to coming to terms with what had happened to their children.
Despite my initial interest in homeopathy, it took me another six years to sign up for a degree course in the subject. I was working then as a nursery nurse and my initial plan on graduating, was to set up a mother and baby clinic. But in the end, I carried on working with children and a move to another county prompted me to pursue an even greater love; writing.
In my novel, Emily faces many challenges along the way. In 2015, my acne flared up and I sought conventional treatment through my GP. After a referral to a dermatologist, I was prescribed Roaccutane, a drug that amongst other side-effects causes an unborn baby to be severely deformed, if taken during pregnancy. I had to undergo regular pregnancy testing and sign a disclaimer to this effect.
It was this experience that made me think: what if it had been 1960 when those safeguards were not in place, before the advent of ultrasounds? I could have found myself in a devastating scenario, like Emily and Sylvia did in my novel.
After watching the BBC programme, ‘Call the Midwife,’ my interest in thalidomide grew further as the subject was covered in the show. This made me want to explore the story further and show through my writing, the thalidomide children grown up and living independent lives. Further reading of the Sunday Times Insight Team’s research on the story of thalidomide offered me an outline of what I could explore in my novel.
Emily’s friendship with Sylvia convinced her to fight for compensation for her son. My experience of homeopathy helped me enormously. But I still had to fact check everything to make sure it was correct. I used my experience of working with children to explore Emily’s relationship with her son. This helped me to balance out the medical side of the story with the emotional ties of the characters.
The novel is a mix of medicine, law and family drama, written in first-person narrative which allowed me to ‘experience’ on a deeper level everything that Emily went through in the story.
When I read about thalidomide now and with the ongoing pandemic I feel my novel is a story of hope. Thalidomide broke down many barriers regarding disability and the safety of drugs, which makes it an important story to read even today.
If I was to advise other writers, I would say don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Write for as long and as much as you want and don’t worry too much about daily word counts, life happens. But most importantly, keep going because someone out there is waiting to read your story.
The first draft took me eight months to complete and I didn’t write it in sequence order! I completed two drafts before approaching literary agents and publishers. Writing ‘Emily,’ taught me that I could tackle a big topic with emotion. Also that a novel becomes stronger with every round of revisions. It’s a natural process of how a book comes together but the end result is something amazing!
For more information check out my Amazon link and Facebook page below;
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