I was supposed to be a professional footballer

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Iain Broome, I could give you a long explanation of how I know Iain but the easiest thing to say is we share 2 gorgeous nephews.

On the 1^st August Iain’s first novel A is for Angelica hit the virtual bookstores and I downloaded my copy onto my lovely new kindle to take to Alaska.  This week marks the launch of the paperback version.  Iain wrote a blog about his dream and I thought you might be interested in the inner turmoil of being something but wanting something else, maybe there’s a moral there…don’t judge a book by the cover.  Although the cover of A is for Angelica is rather splendid!  From reading the blog I’m interested to read the book, and also because I know Iain.  So, how did Iain become a writer?

‘I played my first competitive, 11-a-side football match when I was seven years old. It was on a full-size pitch and my team needed special permission from the league, because the minimum age was eight. The age limit was there for my safety, but I didn’t care because I was big and tall and really good at football.

Many kids have trials with professional clubs and some stay with the team for a couple of years. I played for Notts County until I was 16. I was team captain three out of the seven years I was there. I won trophies. I travelled the country. It was both a pre- and post-pubescent sporting career.

But something happened in that final year. When asked about it, I’ve sometimes said that the problem was that I’d become more interested, like most teenagers, in girls and underage drinking. But that was never the truth.

The real problem was that I was supposed to be a professional footballer, but being a professional footballer was not what I wanted to be.

Then, on one blustery Nottingham evening after training, I was taken to one side, along with my Dad, and told that, unfortunately, I wasn’t going to make it.

It was hard to hear. But also a blessed relief.

By no chance or coincidence, roughly a year before I left Notts County, I wrote my first batch of poetry. It was nothing special, and it was part of my regular schoolwork, but the feedback I received lit something inside me.

A new, entirely different dream began to emerge. I wanted to be a published author.

It’s about creating a world, having something to say, and telling a story. It’s making people laugh. Making people cry.

And that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To move people by creating something that no one else has ever created and by putting words in an order that no one has or ever will again. That’s the crux of all of it.

I was supposed to be a footballer. But I’m not, I’m an author.’

For Iain’s full blog please go to

http://iainbroome.com/professional-footballer

To follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/iainbroome

Or visit his author page on facebook http://www.facebook.com/iainbroomeauthor

And what did I think?  It’s a well written book, with a fast pace and short chapters that keep you turning the pages even when you know you should be doing something else.  Many of you know that Stroke has affected 2 of the team members in the last 12 months and I found the portrayal of being a carer to a loved one who has suffered a Stroke both acurate and sensitive and yes, quite emotional at times.  It had a subtle dark humour that I rather enjoyed.  You never do really know what is going on behind those closed doors of your rather nice suburban street…

Read it, you won’t be disappointed and it lauched in paperback on the 1st September.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelica-Iain-Broome/dp/190877598X/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346675573&sr=1-1
Charlotte Reed – Primary English Consultant Coventry (and secret curtain twitcher)