From Gowling to GODBLIND – communications exec launches debut novel

A local communications executive at one of the UK’s biggest law firms has launched her debut novel, after 13 years of writing it.

Anna Smith, who writes under her maiden name Anna Stephens, works at Gowling WLG at their Birmingham city centre office in Two Snowhill.

The book titled GODBLIND, which is the first in a trilogy, was launched earlier this month and is a fantasy novel based on a religious war. Anna said: “The storyline has a fairly diverse cast of characters and follows the lives of people on both sides of the war, why they are fighting, what they are fighting for and what they are willing to die for.

“There are a lot of betrayals, and ambition, greed and politics.”

GODBLIND has been a long time in the making, with Anna rewriting the book over 10 times. There are also another two books on the way, and Anna only has nine months to write each one. She said: “It is a case of taking everything I have learned in the past 13 years and advice from my editor for the process for the other two.

“GODBLIND went through a lot of variations, it started off as a classic fantasy with princesses and noble warriors, and it just wasn’t very good. I wanted to write something more real, and each re-write became a little more real and explored the characters more.”

Anna first became interested in writing a book at a young age and her love of fantasy novels inspired her to put pen to paper. She said: “I have always loved reading and I grew up being obsessed with historical fiction and fantasies.

“As I got older, I began writing stories and it was a hobby that just kept on growing. I started several books, and I have even given other genres a go too like contemporary romance and sci-fi, but I really wanted to get serious about writing a book so put all my efforts into this trilogy.

“However, a lot of fantasy that I read as a child and it was always about the knights rescuing the princesses and I just thought, why can’t she rescue herself?

“I wanted to explore that through the book, so I have female warriors fighting alongside the male warriors and women have as much power as the men. Women don’t have to wait to be saved and they can also save the men.”

Anna joined Gowling as a legal secretary, before becoming a PA and eventually becoming a part of the communications team. The move into the more creative side of the business helped her writing career.

She said: “I wanted to work in something slightly more creative, so I joined the communications team and that also gave me more confidence to write the book as I was using my brain more creatively.

“My work has been really supportive. I now work four days a week so that I can have one day of solid book writing and it really has helped. They have also helped me promote the book and have even brought copies of it. They have all been really positive about it.”

Fans of Anna’s GODBLIND trilogy can expect to read the next book in spring 2018.