I finished writing my first novel ✍️ ✨

It only took me 14 years...

There she is on the big screen. 77,500 words in all her glory.

Hello everyone,

I’ve got some insane news that hasn’t sunk in yet. The manuscript for Peach Tulips is officially finished!

Peach Tulips is a teen romance novel set in London. I started writing it when I was 14, and I’m now 28. It’s my debut. So to put this in context, it’s taken me just over half of my life, 3 editors, 30+ beta readers, and thousands of hours of writing to be able to say this:

I have written a novel.

It has been my absolute dream to become a published author since I was a teenager. I worked on my manuscript for seven years. Then it sat in my DropBox for six years. It was only through the pandemic and some crazy trauma and subsequent therapy that, for some reason, I dug the hand-written manuscript out of my parents’ attic. That was two years ago. Now the manuscript is finally, finally done.

This book represents a ridiculous amount of my young life in London and my soul. It has taught me so many things. I finished my first draft about a year in. That’s a major thing I learned: if you sit down for long enough to write, eventually, you will type out 75,000 words of whatever crap is in your mind. But there is a HUGE difference between writing a novel and writing a good novel. That is what I have tried to do. I’ve spent years making it the best story possible.

Peach Tulips (the book and audiobook) is coming out in September 2023!

Thank you for your patience this last month. Now that Peach Tulips is done, I have plenty more in store for Misseducated and time to write for you all.

Read the first page of the book now (below), as well as some inspiring words from Elizabeth Gilbert.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Tash

Inspiring words from Elizabeth Gilbert:

“If you write a book, I cannot promise you that your book will be good. I can’t promise you that you will find an agent. I can’t promise you you’ll get published…But the one sacred promise I can make you is that you will know so much more about yourself, life, and the world at the end of that project...Aren’t you curious to see who you’ll be on the other side?”

Page 1 of Peach Tulips

CHAPTER ONE

“Have we met before?” Max Fritz-Galloway said to her from across the garden table.

Half-full ashtrays, bottles, and beer caps lay strewn between them. Max was wearing a black T-shirt and a crisp dinner jacket. He had that strange kind of male beauty where none of his facial features made sense individually. There was nothing particularly attractive about his short nose or his hollowed cheeks. Yet when Abbie took in the complete picture of him, her insides began to tingle.

“With the other Etonians at Capital VIP,” Abbie said. Fond memories of that night at the Ministry of Sound club arose in her mind. The club had multiple levels and a foam room, where students from England’s elite public schools had paid to network with tongues. The hefty £40 entry ticket had been more than worth it.

“Of course.” Max gulped, evidently trying to remember if he was one of the eight boys Abbie had pulled on the sweaty dance floor. He hadn’t been, but at least now he was desperate to remember her and obviously trying to chirpse her. His attention gave her a brief yet energizing sense of power. 

The sky above them was cloudy and tinted a pastel orange with the light pollution of London at night. Cars and double-decker buses hummed in the distance. The pounding dubstep music of Horace Bermond’s house party wailed over the chatter coming from indoors. Across from them at the garden table sat Charles Barry. Charles’s blond curls were smoothed back, gently dusting the collar of his velvet blazer. His angular face was attractive enough, but his large nose was heightened in the reflection of his phone screen. He had been texting incessantly on his BlackBerry all evening. The tip of Charles’s lit cigarette glowed deep amber in the chilled night air. Did she have a better chance of getting with him or Max? Abbie didn’t know. Either way, she needed to loosen herself up—and fast.

A healthy dose of extra nerves and fear is setting in :)