BEGINNER'S PLUCK: Faith Hogan

Faith wrote poems as a teenager, but as an adult got diverted. She has worked as a model, and in Penneys, and whilst taking her degree did a stint in arts administration, but since graduating, has worked in the disability sector.

“I started writing when I became pregnant with my twins. I had to spend months in bed, and I wrote my first novel. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t any good.”

Pregnant a second time, Faith wrote a crime novel, and through that one, she gained agent Judith Murdoch.

“I wrote a second crime novel, but it didn’t sell. Then I decided to have a go at something different. I wrote women’s fiction, and that became the debut.”

Who is Faith Hogan

Date/place of birth: 1969/County Mayo. “I’ve lived in Mayo most of my life. In my twenties I tried living in America, and moved to Boston, but I didn’t warm to it. I lasted two weeks.”

Education: St Mary’s Ballina. Studied Marketing and Design in Mountjoy Square, Dublin; Dublin City University, English and Psychology. University College, Galway, Postgrad.

Home: Ballina.

Family: Husband, James; Twins Seán and Róisín, 14; Tomás, 11, and Cristín, six,

The Day Job: “I work in Western Care, in day service for adults with disabilities.”

In Another Life: “As a child I wanted to be a farmer or a judge, or, later, a farmer’s wife. And I’d like to have become a writer sooner.”

Favourite Writers: Anne Tyler; Kate Atkinson; Kate Morton; Alan Bennett.

Second Novel: “I have a three-book deal, and my second, Secrets We Keep, came out as an ebook in February. It’s set in the 1950s and the present.”

Top Tip: “Have a comfortable chair — you will be sitting there for a long time. And just go for it. Write early in the morning, or late at night, and do it today.”

Web: www.faithhogan.com

Twitter: @GerHogan

The Debut

My Husband’s Wives; Aria, €11.99/Kindle, €1.81

When the leading cardiologist, Paul Starr dies in a car crash, three women mourn his passing. They all believe they are his wife. And what of the pregnant woman injured in the crash. Is she Paul’s new love?

The Verdict: A heart-warming story about unlikely friendships.