AN AUTHOR from Cirencester has launched her debut novel with publishing giants Simon & Schuster.

Penny Parkes, who lives in Rendcomb, celebrated the release of Out of Practice with a launch party on Thursday (August 4) at Waterstones, where the book is currently a bestseller.

The story is set in a doctors surgery in the fictional Cotswold town of Larkford, the author’s “love child of Broadway and Cirencester” where she’s lived most of her life.

“We’re always told to write about what we know,” said Penny, 41. “I spent a lot of time in waiting rooms in Bristol while my daughter had an operation. I became very observant.”

She said she was struck with how “calm and poised” the doctors were and how they always found “little bits of humour” despite often difficult circumstances in their day-to-day job, which helped to shape her characters and the tone of the book.

Now, almost three years since Penny decided to take up writing full-time, she is seeing the fruits of her labour.

“It’s been a journey,” said Penny, who used to work for a film and TV location scouting agency.

“I was travelling a lot, scouting out locations to be used for film shoots and I decided to take a career break for my family. I wanted to make sure my kids were established in school.”

But when the time was right for her to go back to work, Penny realised she couldn’t continue in the same career with a young family.

“For 30 years I’ve been telling friends and family that one day I’ll write a book,” she said. “My husband said to me: ‘Take a year and see what you can do.’”

The advice certainly rang true with Penny now working on her second novel, to be published by the same group.

“The second time around is much harder in many ways,” she admitted. “With the first one you can write it in a much more relaxed fashion because there’s no expectation. I never thought anyone would read it.

“Once you’ve experienced any scrutiny for your work, you’ve read reviews, it can be harder to write from the heart instead of what other people may think.”

Despite the traditional path to publishing often being much lengthier than self-publishing, where books are often only available to order online, Penny said there was only ever one choice for her.

“Ever since I was 10, I have dreamt of walking into a bookshop and being able to pick up a copy of my book.”

Visit simonandschuster.co.uk/authors/Penny-Parkes for more information.