I’m talking to author and illustrator Gilli Allan about her publication journey this week. Gilli writes honestly about modern relationships and is published by Accent Press. Morning, Gilli, can you tell us how you became a published author?

The idea that I could write the story I wanted to read came to me indirectly, via my fifteen-year-old sister.  She managed to finish her Regency Romance, but didn’t attempt novel writing again until after she retired.  My imagination and energy completely failed after only three or four illustrated pages of my own ‘book’ – I was only ten after all – but the writing seed had been planted.

It remained dormant for a couple more years, but pushed its shoots up into the light when I was a young teenager. Even at the time I considered my hobby more a form of sublimation than the expression of ambition. In my real…