A simple change of genre proved to be the secret to success for Ballina author Geraldine Hogan who is celebrating her first book deal.

A native of the town and resident on the Foxford Road, Geraldine, who is a married mum of four, works full time with Western Care Association in Ballina but has always loved writing in her spare time.

Crime fiction has always been her favoured genre and one of her more recent works was selected for the prestigious Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair in 2014. She has sent numerous works to publishing houses over the years but to no avail and it was only when she signed with well-known London based literary agent, Judith Murdock just over a year ago that Geraldine contemplated experimenting in women’s fiction.

Within a year she had completed her first book. “I really enjoyed it and I was lucky because I had lots of people looking over my shoulder along the way like the author Helen Falkoner in Killala and my sister” Geraldine said.

She sent the book off to some publishers on March 17 last and had almost given up on it when she got a call a couple of months later to say Aria, a new imprint from Head of Zeus publishing was interested.

Geraldine has now signed a contract for a three-book deal. Her first work, My Husband’s Wives, should appear in digital format initially, under the pen name Faith Hogan, some time in spring 2016.

Geraldine, who has now just completed the first draft of her second book, describes her first work as “more Deirdre Purcell than Marian Keyes”.
“It’s multi-generational in its appeal because it’s about friendship and emotion. It’s a happy book because I’m a happy person but because I’ve always written crime I had to put a bit of a twist in it,” she concluded.

The Western People, 16th November 2015