Dubai-based American author Liz Fenwick on writing with dyslexia

It was a Saturday afternoon in February, 2011, and just days earlier Fenwick had sent her first novel The Cornish House to plausible agents.

“I dismissed their banter,” she laughs. “They were jumping the gun a bit”.

But later that day, agent Carol Blake, of London-based literary agency Blake Friedmann, finished reading it “all in one go in bed” and was desperate to represent her.

Deciding on Liz Fenwick for her cover name, the Dubai-based American expat didn’t look back.

Finally Fenwick, who grew up in Boston, US, saw her childhood dreams of wanting to write for a living come true.

“As an only child, I spent a lot of time with books,” she says. “I just wanted those stories to continue, and I wanted to live in those stories and the only way to do that was to write.”

However, her dyslexia meant that her path to success was full of difficulties. Knowing how much she wanted to be a writer, her parents hired an English tutor to help with her writing and language in high school.

She admits dyslexia makes the writing process difficult. “I write more simply than I speak or think because I can’t spell,” she says. “Google spell check is probably the best thing that ever happened to me!”

The desire to write for the masses is strengthened by the fact that one of her sons is dyslexic.

“I have watched my son struggle and think I would do anything to make the escape that comes from books accessible to anybody,” Fenwick says.

But is she, like a lot of writers, a perfectionist? “I’ve had to embrace imperfection,” she admits. “I can’t write flawlessly. I write flawed works but fortunately they’re good stories and people want to read those stories.”

After finishing university, Fenwick earned a living working with her father at his insurance business while embarking on further study.

“It wasn’t that I wasn’t any good,” she insists. “I needed to earn a living while I was sitting a place at Harvard divinity school for a masters in theological studies.”

In pursuit of adventure, she moved to London, UK, at the age of 26. The move changed her life forever as she met the love of her life – her husband Chris, 53. This in turn sparked another lifelong love affair with the English county of Cornwall – now the resident muse of her books.

The couple married in 1991 and went on to have three children, Dominic, now 21, Andrew, 19, and Sasha, 14, who they raised at the family home in Cornwall. It remains “the root of inspiration” for Fenwick’s tomes, and the family’s home, having spent years shuttling between Canada, Indonesia, Moscow and Dubai with Chris’s job with an oil company. They relocated nine times in 13 years.

Travelling with young children and her desire to “be a full-time mother” put Fenwick’s writing aspirations on hold.

“During those child-rearing years, I didn’t write any fiction. The only time I’d read anything was when I’d go stay with my parents”, says the author who is a self-confessed historical fiction buff who has devoured the works of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth Chadwick.

But Fenwick’s lifestyle eventually led her on to the right path. Appointed head of the Schlumberger Spouses Association (SSA), a voluntary group that helped employees’ families move around the world, she began to write articles about expat life.

“On New Year’s Eve 2003, having just moved to Dubai, I made a decision,” she says. “I decided to write more.”

“It was rejected – it was terrible,” she laughs. “It was an awful novel, but it taught me I could complete a novel.”

The venture got Fenwick noticed by the Romantic Novelists Association in the UK. “They have this wonderful programme called the new writers scheme, where I submitted the rejected novel,” says Fenwick.

The feedback spurred her on. “An anonymous published author from the association told me, ‘You can write. But you need to look where your voice fits’. I admit my voice did not fit straightforward romance,” she says. “I wanted complicated plot lines, and writing about why two people can’t get together was difficult, especially for a brand like Mills & Boon.”

For the next five years Fenwick produced a novel a year, submitting each to the new writers scheme to gain valuable constructive criticism.

Instead Fenwick received personal emails asking to see more of her work. “This meant to me that there was something there that they liked,” she says. “I was slowly finding my writing voice.”

Although it took five novels during what she now calls her “apprenticeship years”, Fenwick’s hard work finally bore fruit, when in 2011 her “dream agent” Carol Blake came knocking.

The two women had met through Twitter and “became great mates” before linking up professionally.

“I wanted the validation that comes from doing it traditionally as discoverability is a big problem with self-publishing,” she says.

And having publishing powerhouse Orion behind her meant the business side of things was taken care of, allowing her to focus on the creative side.

Fenwick’s growing fan base connect with her on social media to tweet praise or offer support when a bad review pops up. “It hurts when you get a bad review,” she says.

The “job” she refers to involves, “writing wonderful, feel-good romances”. But she’s quick to point out her female protagonists aren’t wilting wallflowers. “My female leads always take charge of their lives and destinies. It’s a bit like a grown-up version of Princess Diaries 2!” she laughs.

Her latest novel, A Cornish Stranger tackles a multi-generational storyline with the narrative questioning identity. It was based on the old Cornish phrase, ‘Save a stranger from the sea and he’ll turn your enemy’.

“It’s a good trait as a writer – you look at things differently,” she says. “One of the nicest pieces of feedback is when the Cornish complement me. That tells me they get how their landscape and community works with my stories.”

Now Fenwick feels at home within Dubai’s budding literary community. “The writers’ community here has blossomed since the Emirates Festival of Literature began,” she says. “It’s bringing in lots of incredibly inspirational people.”