Volunteer’s novel is a real page turner

A Hospice volunteer who found her voice through writing celebrates as first novel is published.

Wendy Goult, a Hospice volunteer at St Nicholas Hospice Care, has taken her first steps into the literary world with her first published book Chain Reaction.

Wendy said: “I started writing as therapy following the death of my husband, after he died it was like all the shutters came down, it is very difficult to describe what it was like, but I just felt there was nothing in my head.

“I needed to get back on my feet so I attended a writing group at the Hospice. The first time I went along I couldn’t really write anything, I think I must have done about three lines.

“We were given some homework to do, I thought how am I going to be able to manage that what am I going to write, but I did it and now there seems to be no stopping it.”

Having caught the writing bug Wendy, who has volunteered at the hospice for three years, now writes poetry and has already finished her second novel which is currently being considered by publishers.

“I wrote a short novella first, when I started I didn’t know if I would be able to do it but I was surprised where the ideas came from. Now it is like I have a shelf above my head full of ideas and I just pick them off.

“When I finished the novella I had an idea about a body being found by a stream, I told my youngest daughter I had an idea for a book, she was surprised. Chain Reaction was the result,” said Wendy.

Chain Reaction follows the chain of events triggered after character Kate Maple arrives in her afterlife with no recollection of how or why it happened and who killed her.

The story weaves through the lives of her friends and family as well as witnesses and suspects. It promises to draw the reader into a tale of love, betrayal and a rage that takes away all reason before leading the reader into a sense of wellbeing.

Wendy said: “I actually finished the first draft when I was on a four month cruise around South America and The Pacific. I was sat on my balcony coming back into the Atlantic in April 2015 when I finished it.”

Wendy will be signing copies of the murder mystery at the Diss Publishers Bookshop on Saturday 16 July.

Wendy said: “I have never really done anything like this before so I really don’t know what to expect from the book signing, I suppose I will have to start with introducing myself.

Born in Norwich in 1946, Wendy grew up in police houses around Suffolk, she married her husband David in 1967 and found her voice through fiction following his death in November 2011.

Previously Wendy’s writing was factual and included, The Survey of Suffolk Parish History, which she researched and produced for Suffolk County Council.

Before starting a new chapter as an administration volunteer for the hospice’s facilities department Wendy worked in construction.

Chain Reaction is published by Pegasus Publishers and is available for £8.99.