Geraldton author to publish first novel

Ceinwen Langley will have her first novel, “The Edge of the Woods” published in May this year, the first for the 26-year-old writer who grew up in Geraldton. 

Ceinwen moved to Geraldton with her family when she was 10 years old and completed her schooling at Mount Tarcoola Primary and then went onto Nagle Catholic College. 

She has since completed a Bachelor of Communications majoring in film and also has a Masters in Professional Communications majoring in screenwriting, both from Edith Cowan University.

Ceinwen went onto be a script writer for Australian TV show Neighbours before finishing up last year and concentrating on her career as a freelance writer. 

She is self publishing her first novel, “The Edge of The Woods” and it will be released in May and available as an eBook and paperback through Amazon. 

The Edge of the Woods is a Young Adult fantasy novel following Emma, an underprivileged young woman stuck in a village governed by a fear-mongering Mayor. She wants to make a good life for herself and her mother, but the only way of doing that is to convince someone to marry her by her eighteenth birthday – which turns out to be harder than she thought. Meanwhile, there are old horror stories about young women being lured into the woods. Ultimately, she has to decide whether to run away from her future or face up to it.

Ceinwen said her inspiration for the book came from a short story she previously wrote.

“There’s a bit of romance, a bit of adventure, and a whole bunch of girls being awesome,” she said.

The decision to self publish her book was something Ceinwen says has been very satisfying.

“While I love writing for film and television, and plan to continue doing it, I’ve wanted to be a novelist for as long as I can remember,” she said.

“When I was a teenager I spent the time I should have been doing homework writing a terrible epic fantasy novel, writing little stories for friends or just blatantly ripping off my favourite authors to teach myself how to write better.

“Seeing my own book in print is the dream, whatever happens after that is just icing really.”

Just today, Ceinwen had a short story, “The Sext Best Thing” published in BirdeeMag.

“I’ve been a fan of BirdeeMag for a while, and they seemed like the ideal place to share the story, so bit the bullet and hit send,” she said. 

“I heard back from them the next day, saying they’d love to publish it.” (Read it here.)

Published books and fame aside, Ceinwen hopes she can have a long career in the writing industry. 

“The ultimate goal is to spend the rest of my life travelling and writing, working on ground breaking television shows and becoming the kind of writer I look up to now, Isobelle Carmody, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman,” she said.

“But it’s such a hard industry to make a living in, let alone succeed at, so at the end of the day, I’ll settle for a couple of happy readers or viewers. As long as I’m writing, it’s all good.” 

Read more about Ceinwen and hear upcoming book on her website or Facebook Page.