A MOTHER who after being made redundant pursued her dream to become an author will be signing copies of her first book this weekend.

Tania Walsh, of Darwin Road in Stevenage, lost her admin job at the end of 2008 and, after many rejection letters, turned to writing to help pay for her impending May 2009 wedding.

Two years on the 27-year-old, who was inspired by Comet country author Ken Follett when he spoke at her school in the 1990s, has had her first novel published which she will be signing at Waterstones bookstore in the town on Saturday.

Entitled For All Our Sins, the fictional crime thriller is centred around Hertfordshire Police’s DCI Claire Winters, who is sent on the trail of a killer after a priest is found mutilated in his own church.

Set in Hertfordshire, the novel features a number of locations which will be familiar to The Comet’s readers.

Tania said: “The idea that I wanted to be an author was always at the back of my mind, but it wasn’t until I was made redundant from a construction company that I decided to go for it – it was the big push I needed.

“I sent off the first few chapters of the manuscript to a publisher recommended by a friend before I married, and didn’t think I would hear anything back, but within three months I was asked to submit the full manuscript, which I hadn’t even finished!

“I fell pregnant soon after getting married and after my daughter Eden was born in March 2010, I still hadn’t finished the book. My husband had to take over much of the baby care while I finished it.

“It was over a year since the publisher had asked for my complete manuscript and, luckily, they were very patient with me. I signed my contract soon after they saw the finished work.”

The Stevenage resident, who is now working on a second novel featuring DCI Claire Winters, added: “It’s what I really wanted to do but it gave me the push to just go for it as I didn’t want to be doing a nine-to-five job anymore.”

Tania will be at Stevenage’s Waterstones in the town centre on Saturday from 11am to 3pm for the book signing.