MANY women dread the approach of their 50th birthday, perhaps feeling that their best years are behind them and that few good surprises lie ahead.
For Scottish sisters Pam Burks and Lorraine Campbell, whose second novel, When Good Friends Go Bad, is published next week, the half-century heralded the fulfilment of a long-held dream and proved that sometimes success is sweeter when shared.
“I’d almost given up hope of being a novelist,” says Lorraine, 53, the elder half of the Ellie Campbell pseudonym under which the two sisters write.
“I’d been talking about it since I was 23 when I saw my first short story in print. Seventy short stories and 30 years of procrastination later, it finally happened. Unbelievable.”
A great deal of the credit, she admits, belongs to her partner, Pam. When Pam, 51, joined her first creative writing class 20 years ago, neither sister had any idea that the seeds had been planted for a future writing team.
“I started off selling romances to magazines,” Pam remembers.
“Then Lorraine, who had been backpacking worldwide, settled in Colorado. We began e-mailing and it was only natural to send each other things we were working on for encouragement. And from that we decided to write a book together.”
Soon the two women were communicating daily by e-mail, Skype and phone, with new versions of the book zooming across the Atlantic.
“We’d each write a section then forward it to the other for revision. It helps that we have the same sense of humour,” Lorraine says.
Choosing the name, Ellie Campbell, the two drew heavily on their experiences as the youngest of four girls growing up in Edinburgh for their first novel, How To Survive Your Sisters.
“We wanted to capture the joys and frustrations of sisterhood in a contemporary, dramatic storyline,” says Pam.
Pam and Lorraine were bowled over when Arrow, a division of Random House, offered them a two-book contract.
“I was the first to hear because of the time difference,” Pam explains.
“As soon as it was dawn in Colorado, I called Lorraine and said, ‘I hope you’re awake because I’ve got big news’.”
Lorraine says: “The best thing, besides finally proving to our husbands we weren’t just wasting our time, was going through the experience together.
“Individually, we’re rather shy, so it was great to have the moral support of showing up as a pair to meet our agent and editor and later for press and radio interviews and book signings. If one of us couldn’t think of a thing to say, the other one filled in. Just as when we’re writing, if one of us is stuck, the other moves the story along.”
The publication of How to Survive your Sisters was also an opportunity to show Lorraine’s American husband their old haunts – Inverness, where they were born; Edinburgh, where they lived until teenagers, and their father’s childhood home in Skye, where they spent every holiday.
“We took him around Dunvegan Castle, went crab fishing on Portree pier – the kind of things we’d enjoyed as youngsters. He’s still talking about how beautiful everything was.”
For their second book, they turned the spotlight on flawed best friends.
When Good Friends Go Bad focuses on the complexities of female friendships through school, first love, marriage, divorce, deceptions and betrayals as three former friends reunite on a quest that will unearth shocking secrets and change their lives forever.
Lorraine says: “It was a natural follow-up because your girlfriends can sometimes be closer than sisters, and when they let you down, it’s often more devastating than being cheated on by a man.”
So suddenly 50 doesn’t seem so bad?
“For us, it meant having free time to pursue our passion,” says Pam.
“It feels like the start of a whole new adventure,” Lorraine agrees.
“Maturity did make us better writers. We have a lot more to say.”
When Good Friends Go Bad, by Ellie Campbell, is published by Arrow on July 30.