SARA DOWNING NEW WRITING CAREER ALL ADDS UP


the book just fell on to the page. Set in a small village it is easy to draw comparisons with Sara’s own life.


“I think that is inevitable with a first book. It is definitely loosely based on friends and my observations of the staff at the school, although Tom [one of the main characters] is definitely not our head teacher.”


So how did friends feel about their starring role in her work? “No one was offended and lots of the teachers found it quite funny. Evie, one character in the book is definitely based on a friend and she has never realised although another set of friends, who had quite a distinct story which I used, spotted themselves straightaway.”


Like many first time writers, Sara struggled to find an agent to accept her but she had completed the book just as e-readers were taking off and decided to take the plunge and self-publish. “I was lucky as the timing was perfect and my book went straight into the Kindle top 100 which was amazing.”


126


As a mother of three young children, including twins, you’d have thought Sara Downing would have had more than enough on her plate without embarking on a new career. A chartered accountant by profession, Sara had taken a career break when the first of her children were born in 2001 followed five years later by her twins.


Living in Worcestershire, her husband, also an accountant, was commuting to and from London whilst Sara stayed at home to bring up the family. But when the twins turned three and started attending nursery a couple of days a week, Sara was able to pursue a long held dream of becoming an author.


“I used to spend the whole two days writing, not cooking and cleaning and catching up like you need to do when you have a young family,” she said.


Although Sara had done a French degree, she always wished she had done English instead and had always wanted to write. “I was really lucky to have a supportive husband who said why not give it a go rather than always wishing I had, so I did,” she said.


To help her get started, Sara did a couple of creative writing courses and was really encouraged by her tutors to pursue her dream.


The first of her books Head over Heels falls into the chick lit category and nearly 10 years after publication is still selling well. Following the mantra write about what you know, the book follows the lives of three female friends – their romances, their family dramas and their friendship and looking back, Sara says


LIVE24-SEVEN.COM


Inspiration for one of her more recent books came from her daily walks with her Labrador around Croome, with historic Croome Court the setting for her supernatural thriller The Lost Boy.


“I walk near the house regularly but then I had a weird dream about a little boy who had been left in our garden after a party. I found out Croome Court used to be a residential boys’ school and was lucky enough to get shown around by someone who had all these amazing ghost stories so I thought I’d combine the two things.


MOTORING, SPORT & ENTERTAINMENT SARA DOWNING


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132