Is it really a curse or just repetitive behaviour?
Felpham author Helen Pengelly is in print with The Pepper Seed (self-published on Amazon; £9.99 paperback, £7.99 Kindle) – a book which came to her fully formed.
In The Pepper Seed, Helena, a senior business reporter, believes she and her family were the victims of a centuries’ old curse.
Then one day her editor finds out about her family secret and Helena finds herself tasked with the most significant assignment of her journalistic career…
Helen, 57, is delighted that the book is now out there.
“Nearly eight years after I first received the idea for this book on a retreat it’s now on Amazon. I’ve always dreamed of being an author since I was a child and I finally got there. It’s been a journey battling with my demons and selfbelief and not thinking I was good enough but I’ve done it.
“I first received the idea for the book in 2012. It arrived as a download and fully formed story so didn’t require a lot of planning other than making sure the dates aligned with the historical events.
“As to what happened to each of the women, much of that unfolded as I wrote it. I was also interested to read about how teenage mothers were treated in the book The Girls Who Went Away by Anne Fessler.
“It was harrowing reading. I hope that my book will help reduce some of the stigma that still surrounds young mothers and that we can change society’s attitudes and offer them love and support.
“I started writing it in October 2012, put it aside and finished it in November 2014 as part of the National Novel Writing month. I was taking a break from work as a supply because we had been having some family issues.
Also my DBS had expired because the agency hadn’t sent off my renewal form so I couldn’t work anyway. That meant there was no excuse for me not to get on and finish my book! I didn’t think about publishing it at the time, I had enjoyed writing it. Fast forward to the beginning of lockdown in March 2020. I had a moment of insight about the message of the book and that now was the time to publish it.”
In the book, a young woman, Rose, now in her 30s, had a daughter in her teens.
“Her mother was a teenager when she had her too. Rose’s mother married and had more children when Rose was a teenager. Rose said she would never have any more children because it was hard on her and it was not fair on her daughter.
“However Rose followed in her mother’s footsteps and got married recently and had another baby. Will her daughter, who is now a teenager, become a mother herself in the next couple of years just like her mother and grandmother?
“I’ve been asked where the curse came from. It’s up to you to decide if there really is a curse or are the protagonists merely subconsciously repeating the patterns of their predecessors? Our subconscious minds are very powerful. We are mostly acting on beliefs we formed before the age of seven.
“As well as being a writer I am an intuitive coach and I help you uncover your unconscious beliefs, heal them and transform your life.
“At the moment (the book is a) stand-alone, although I did start writing a sequel a few years ago. I have another, unrelated novel coming out (in 2021).”
Helen has had a varied career as a bookkeeper, teacher and now writer and coach. In the 1990s she lived abroad in Bahrain, Mallorca and Qatar.