Write on for good karma

Apr 1 2007 By Coreena Ford, The Sunday Sun

A determined writer has told how she overcame her battle against ME to release her first book.

Holly Harvey's promising career as a technician came to an abrupt end at the age of 19 because of the illness - otherwise known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - which she had originally developed aged 11.

Holly, now 32, of Crawcrook, Gateshead, has not been able to work ever since and spends most of her days house and bed-bound, indulging in her favourite hobby of writing when she feels well enough.

After a little encouragement from husband Gordon and her parents, Holly entered a competition to root out new authors . . . and won.

Karma - an inspirational, funny and heart-warming exploration of an ME sufferer's daily battles - won the regional final of the Undiscovered Authors contest, and it's now on sale in many North bookshops.

She said: "It still doesn't seem real . . . it's a bit like a fairytale.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself in writing the book but I wanted to prove I'm still worth something and I'm not just a person who sits in a dark room doing nothing.

"I wrote the first chapter of Karma around seven years ago and it was a cathartic exercise to begin with. I liked to write to keep my mind busy.

"I won the competition on the basis of my synopsis and the first chapter . . . and I then had two months to complete it!

"Having ME is difficult for some people to understand because they may see me outdoors and think `there's nothing wrong with her, she's out and about' while not realising that I spend 95 per cent of my time in my pyjamas.

"It's complete and utter fatigue - mentally and physically - to the point that I can't pick myself off the settee, take one more step or even finish a sentence."

"Basically I spend time in bed or resting to store up the energy to go somewhere or do something, then following this activity, I spend time in bed or resting to recover from it . . . and fortunately, writing is something that I can pick up when I can do very little else."

Karma's heroine is Paige - a 28-year-old ME sufferer whose life revolves around sleep, caffeine and VH-1 while friends are busy partying - but Holly says she only shares a few of her protagonist's personality traits.

She said: "We share a few similarities but Paige has a vile ex-boyfriend, while I've been married to Gordon for 11 years, and he's been fantastic.

"I've got lots of ideas for other novels but I don't have the energy at the moment."

* Karma, published by Undiscovered Authors, is on sale priced £8.99 at online retailers Amazon, WHSmith, Tesco, Play.com, Henry's Books of Ryton, Waterstones and Borders.