Littleborough author releases first book

Fractured Minds by Gail Campbell

Gail Campbell, an author from Littleborough, has written and released her first book.

Fractured Minds is a fantasy horror tale about a girl called Melissa who has issues with mental health and suffers from nightmares. She regularly dreams about a girl called Rebecca, who keeps pleading for help asking to be rescued from the force that took her from her home. Melissa later discovers that Rebecca disappeared over five years ago without a trace and decides to try and help bring her home.

Gail, who is a fan of Stephen King and Lee Child, was inspired by those authors when writing the book. She said: “Stephen King was certainly a big influence for me when I was writing this book. I am a big fan of his books and like that genre of story.”

Writing books has always been an ambition of Gail’s but it is something that she wasn’t able to peruse until now. “I've always loved writing and have written short stories and poems from being a young girl but time is often an issue, especially when you are working full time. My husband works shifts so I decided that when I had a bit of spare time at the weekends, I would use my time productively and start writing,” added Gail.

The story came from Gail being a frequent dreamer. She added: “I dream an awful lot and 90% of the time I remember what my dreams have been about. They are usually quite random and weird. I would tell my husband and he always said I should write a book about them because they were so strange. So I thought why not use the idea that dreams could be true, it's just another place and time, and write a story about it.”

The 18 month process included writing the story and getting it to publication.

Gail does have plans to write the book as part of a series but says it can be read as a stand alone story. “It ends in a way were you can either draw your own conclusion or say, wait a minute, I want some more, so it can be read alone but it can lead into other stories. I am planning to write a second book to follow on from it and eventually produce a series,” said Gail.

Born in Rochdale, Gail has lived in Newhey, Milnrow, Norden and Littleborough. At the age of 17, she joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service but had to leave when she started a family. Gail then moved to a job in sales, something she is still doing whilst writing. “I definitely want to continue writing. I have the bug for it now,” said Gail.

Fractured Minds is available on Amazon now. The paperback edition is £8.99 with the Kindle edition priced at £1.99.