When Paula Gleeson’s grade four teacher told her she should write stories, Paula ran with it – or rather, ran away from it! She instead decided to pursue a career in film and television. Fast forward a few decades, and Paula finally followed that teacher’s advice by enrolling in Reinvent Yourself at the Australian Writers' Centre, followed by Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder and Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers. She went on to secure a two-book six-figure deal with Thomas and Mercer and her debut thriller, Original Twin, is out in bookstores right now.
“The courses laid a foundation of self-belief that I could achieve the goal of being a published author one day, which clearly worked as that dream came true!” Paula told us.
Fulfilling a childhood dream
Despite the early encouragement at school, Paula didn’t pursue her passion for creative writing. All that changed when she realised she needed to go back to her childhood dream.
“I had been working in the film/TV industry for decades and was getting majorly burnt out. I had always wanted to be an author but had never given myself permission to do something for myself. I was in my forties and knew that it was now or never, so I signed up for various AWC courses in the hope it would give me the push I needed to take writing seriously.”
Paula was especially attracted by the specialisation offered by AWC courses.
“I liked that I could hand pick subjects that felt relevant to me, my aspirations, and my writing,” Paula says. “The courses promised what they delivered, without feeling overwhelming. Publishing and writing in general can be so daunting when you are first starting out, so finding courses that felt tailor made for me—with goal posts that were achievable—was such a godsend.”
Taking the plunge
With her newfound confidence, Paula threw herself into writing, completing five manuscripts in just a few years. She put the lessons learned in Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers to good use, pitching agents and publishers and refining her manuscripts, before being picked up by her current agent, Gwen Beal from UTA. Within two months, Paula had a two-book six-figure deal.
Well, that’s the condensed version. The reality is that Paula went through many rewrites, pivots and hard work to get to her final destination.
“At an age where I should be well and truly settled into my career until retirement, I decided to give writing a real shot,” Paula says.
She wrote her first manuscript, which would become Original Twin, and went out on submission, but was told that it was more suited to YA. She wrote a brand new manuscript for a YA audience and landed her first agent, but when that relationship didn’t work out, she tried for a middle grade novel, while also pitching her other manuscripts.
“I was exhausted, defeated. I wanted to give up multiple times. Not to mention I was incredibly burnt out from writing five manuscripts in a matter of years,” Paula told us. “Only, something exciting happened. An agent I had queried passed over my YA mystery to a colleague and this colleague loved it and could we get on a call? I mean, YES! This call would lead me to my current agent, Gwen Beal from UTA. I knew I had finally found my advocate and it was well worth the wait.”
Working with Gwen, Paula pulled out that original manuscript for Original Twin, and rewrote it again.
“I still kept my late-teen protagonists but I wrote it for an adult market. I did this during the pandemic, while going through a divorce and couch surfing (1/10 do not recommend).”
With this newly polished manuscript, Paula secured her publishing deal with Thomas and Mercer.
“I think I went from joy to tears pretty quickly because of how hard the journey was and the absolute relief of finally knowing all that hard work was worth it. Even now that my book is out, it still doesn’t feel real. Sometimes being comfortably numb is as good an emotion as any. LOL. So the hustle and pivoting was worth it—but yikes what a journey to get here. (Insert ‘it was 84 years’ meme here.)”
A page-turning thriller
Paula’s debut novel Original Twin is an adult/crossover thriller about twin sisters May and June who couldn’t be more different. May is quiet, self-conscious, withdrawn; June is boisterous, beautiful, magnetic…and missing. It’s been a year since June disappeared, a year of May waiting for her to turn up with an explanation of where she’s been and why she left. But with the discovery of an old newspaper article comes a secret: their mother once vanished, too, on the same date when she was nineteen years old. Just like June. This was no coincidence. June was investigating this buried family mystery, and she left May a series of clues to pick up where she left off. Now, if May wants to find June, she’ll have to retrace her footsteps through their mother’s past. The more answers she digs up, the more questions May has. And the biggest one of all: When her sister’s trail of breadcrumbs runs out, what or who will she find?
Seeing her novel on bookshelves and garnering rave reviews has been a dream come true for Paula.
“I didn’t debut until I was 50 so there were many decades in between. I certainly imagined it and knew that if I worked hard enough and never gave up that I could turn my dream into a reality.”
After securing her deal with Thomas and Mercer, Paula can now write full time. It just goes to show, you should always follow the advice of your grade four teacher. But it’s also never too late to follow your dreams.
“Sign up to an AWC course immediately! There is something for everyone, no matter where you are at in your writing journey.”
When Paula Gleeson’s grade four teacher told her she should write stories, Paula ran with it – or rather, ran away from it! She instead decided to pursue a career in film and television. Fast forward a few decades, and Paula finally followed that teacher’s advice by enrolling in Reinvent Yourself at the Australian Writers' Centre, followed by Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder and Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers. She went on to secure a two-book six-figure deal with Thomas and Mercer and her debut thriller, Original Twin, is out in bookstores right now.
With her newfound confidence, Paula threw herself into writing, completing five manuscripts in just a few years. She put the lessons learned in Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers to good use, pitching agents and publishers and refining her manuscripts, before being picked up by her current agent, Gwen Beal from UTA. Within two months, Paula had a two-book six-figure deal.
Paula’s debut novel Original Twin is an adult/crossover thriller about twin sisters May and June who couldn’t be more different. May is quiet, self-conscious, withdrawn; June is boisterous, beautiful, magnetic…and missing. It’s been a year since June disappeared, a year of May waiting for her to turn up with an explanation of where she’s been and why she left. But with the discovery of an old newspaper article comes a secret: their mother once vanished, too, on the same date when she was nineteen years old. Just like June. This was no coincidence. June was investigating this buried family mystery, and she left May a series of clues to pick up where she left off. Now, if May wants to find June, she’ll have to retrace her footsteps through their mother’s past. The more answers she digs up, the more questions May has. And the biggest one of all: When her sister’s trail of breadcrumbs runs out, what or who will she find?
