Eek! My pocket novel will appear on supermarket shelves this week!
Photo: Sneak peek of the Pocket Novel The Sweetest Thing, illustration by Manon Gandiolle/People’s Friend, release date 5th June 2025
HOW WRITING A SHORT STORY LED TO A POCKET NOVEL
This one was in the bag, long before its publication date with UK publisher D.C.Thomson! I had to sit and wait for news of a huge national competition - and my editors at D.C.Thomson were right behind me. I can never thank them enough for that care and support.
The Pocket Novel was inspired by my short story of the same name, The Sweetest Thing, published last Easter!
I initially wrote a story about Italian Bianca coming to work at Chocolatier Nord in Puffin Bay in Scotland having given up chocolate for Lent - I was so pleased with that story-line, and I got such great feedback from readers!
I realised that Chocolatier Nord in Puffin Bay was a wonderful location and that by introducing some more key characters I could have some real fun. Not only that but Bianca and Callum could tell much more of their story - their backgrounds and motivations. I got stuck in!
Photo: Jackie Morrison. People’s Friend magazine/Short Story illustration by Helen Welsh for The Sweetest Thing, Easter 2024
PENGUIN (a Big Five Publisher!)
I entered a competition with my novel idea for The Sweetest Thing when the novel was still in its fledgling stages. The initial part of the competition only needed a few thousand words. As I waited to hear if I was longlisted, I just kept writing!
LONG-LISTED!
I was long-listed in the competition, so now I had to deliver more words! I had already put the Pocket Novel proposal to D.C.Thomson, so I went back to them to explain that I’d like to hold off from submitting the full Pocket Novel for now, in case I did get further in the competition as it was a huge prize for an unagented/unpublished (in novel-length) author. My editors were very understanding and encouraging.
TIMINGS
I always felt it was a long shot - although I’d previously been short-listed in the very same competition some years before. Getting down to a short-list from potentially hundreds or maybe even over a thousand submissions does do wonders for your confidence.
Remember, writers - you’ve got to be in it, to win it! And that’s a good attitude to take forward with any submission! Finish your work - put your work forward.
I wasn’t totally convinced my writing was commercial enough to meet Penguin’s purposes, although the pitch got a lot of online love when I had entered a pitch competition.
Photo: Jackie Morrison. Here’s the moodboard that started it all!
MOVING ON
Three months later I got a nicely worded decline from Penguin. I quickly put my disappointment aside and immediately sent off my now completed Pocket Novel to People’s Friend. I had originally written the outline and opening with the People’s Friend readership in mind, so I was delighted for this one to be considered by D.C.Thomson.
I waited….and in the meantime, I wrote more stories. I’d had quite a few story acceptances before I got the much anticipated email from the Pocket Novel editor. Yes! I’d done it! Pocket Novel accepted!
FEELINGS
It’s a strange thing when you’ve lived with a story for so long. Remember, this one started life as a short story appearing in People’s Friend in Easter 2024, went into a competition in autumn 2024, accepted by D.C.Thomson early in 2025 to be published in June 2025! I lived with these characters for a long time and I was over the moon at the idea of being in print, although I did start to have a few anxiety dreams! To steady my nerves, I downloaded the submitted manuscript to my Kindle to read it all over again.
Writers, don’t ever do this. Once it goes to print, that’s it done! There’s no more editing to be done, no changes to the plot, no clarifications. It’s done. You need to let go.
LETTING GO
In the end, I did NOT read the manuscript on my Kindle - I let it go.
This week, I let go of the characters working at Chocolatier Nord in Puffin Bay, Scotland. Those same characters travel to the chocolate festival in Florence, Italy. It’s a beautiful, sweet love story that I lived with for more than 18 months.
MY ACCEPTANCE MANTRA
I send it out into the world to be read by other people. It will now be in the hands of readers and everything in that story will live in others interpretation of it.
ONWARDS
So what to do when you finish?
Firstly - you must congratulate yourself on finishing a full draft - many writers never get there. Read that again…many writers never complete their work.
I learned the hard way that the best thing to do after the celebrations, is to plan to write something else - gather the information, dream, draft - but move on to something new. And stop refreshing the email!!!
Photo: Jackie Morrison. My new notebook, with my new Pocket Novel idea inside!
CELEBRATIONS!
Will I have a little celebration? Of course, I will! I anticipate a sunny garden lunch with family and friends, and a bottle of fizz to toast Bianca and Callum on their way out into the wider world!
If you see The Sweetest Thing out in the wild in a supermarket or newsagent, can I ask you to take a photo and say where you saw it? I’d love to know how far it gets across the UK! I’ll be posting a photo as soon as I get it in my hands!!!
And that, my friends, is how a short story became a Pocket Novel - same characters, same location, much bigger story!
I hope this is helpful to you in understanding that your ideas can come to fruition in different forms!
Feel free to buy me a glass of celebratory bubbly!
END NOTE
Follow my Notes this week to discover what my Pocket Novel has in common with a short story of mine appearing in this week’s The People’s Friend. Yes, it’s a double celebration for me this week - the Pocket Novel is on the shelves, and my short story is in the mag!
PS It’s something to do with this location!!!
Do feel free to share and restack as it helps people get to know the Little Writing Corner which is fab. Thanks for being here - and happy writing! From Jackie, in the Little Writing Corner in Scotland x
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