It was twenty years ago and my life was about to change.

2005 was my maternity year – my baby son had been born that February and I’d used the time to write the first draft of The Woman Before Me. It’s a dark tale, focusing on maternal jealousy and post-natal depression, and also the treatment of women within the criminal justice system. I’d been a probation officer for several years and had seen first-hand how women were treated differently from men – both as inmates and staff – and my story felt cathartic and private. Publication wasn’t in my head until I saw a flyer advertising the Debut Dagger competition, in the local WH Smith.

The Awards Ceremony was my first night away from my baby. As part of the prize, the CWA put me and my husband up in a boutique hotel. The event was glitzy: rock-star authors; a meal of several courses; flowing wine. Not that I could eat. I was a bundle of nerves and when my name was called I could only manage to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’. The Debut Dagger was tiny, a silver brooch in a plastic box, but it meant its weight in gold to me. The next week I resigned from my probation career and waited for my life to change.

It didn’t.

‘Too dark,’ editors said, referring to the themes of post-natal depression and loss of a baby. This was several years before ‘domestic noir’ became the hottest ticket in town and publishers were wary. They also told me, ‘No one is interested in probation.’

This was the moment I would have abandoned writing if there had been any jobs to return to in the probation service. But, instead, I carried on writing stories featuring Cate Austin, my probation officer protagonist.

Four years later I entered The Woman Before Me in a competition organised by Legend Press, a small independent publishers. I was one of ten authors shortlisted, and the winner was announced in the dusty room on the top floor of a Clerkenwell pub. I was shocked beyond belief when my name was called. I burst into tears and didn’t stop because I would finally be a published author. My life was about to change.

Now, it is changing again. Probation are in the media more than ever before and people are asking questions of this vital yet invisible service. There is an appetite for alternative perspectives on crime, demonstrated by the popularity of the recent TV series Adolescence. And my Cate Austin series is about to be republished by HQ Harper Collins, starting in January 2026, with two new titles already commissioned. I intend to seize every second and ride the capricious wave of fortune for as long as it lasts.

I hope you ride the wave too. Enter the competition and take a chance. Only don’t give up the day job!