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Single Bald Female

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Author Laura Price (Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, 2005) and literary agent Sophie Lambert (English & German, 1999) are proud to have published Laura’s debut novel, Single Bald Female. Laura writes about her experience of publishing a novel here… Simply put, I think bald women are beautiful': author Laura Price on what losing her hair to breast cancer taught her about beauty

Hair loss is never like it is in the films. My friends didn’t offer to shave their hair off in solidarity, and to be honest I didn’t expect them to. Quite a few of them took me wig shopping though, and it was fun trying on different hair shapes and colours. As every cancer patient knows, life is short, and there’s no point putting off your dreams for some distant future day that might never come. I fulfilled my childhood dream to write a novel and I’m so proud of it. When will you write yours?But there’s a difference between a shaved head for fashion, and hair loss from cancer. With the former, you have a thin layer of hair and you often have your eyebrows and lashes. With the latter, you lose your sideburns, your brows, your lashes and even the thin layer of downy hair on your face. For me, it was the loss of my sideburns, brows and lashes that really hit me. I felt naked and vulnerable. Without those things to frame my face, I looked like a cancer patient, and sadly no amount of make-up could make me look normal. ‘Hair loss is never like it is in the films. ’

Then, just three months after my book launch, after suffering from pain in my sternum, I found out the cancer had spread to my bones and was now incurable. A whole 10 years had passed since my primary diagnosis. I was distraught – I had only just met the love of my life – but I also found myself filled with gratitude. I had a whole decade of being cancer-free, and I stuffed it full with life. I wrote the book I’d wanted to write since I was that little girl scribbling in her diary every day. Simply put, I think bald women are beautiful. Jada Pinkett-Smith at the Oscars? Stunning. Megan Fox and Natalie Portman with shaved heads? Gorgeous. When a blog I wrote about my dating experience went viral, I realised how little information there was about young women and cancer, and that I could use my voice to help others. I created characters, friendships and love stories to escape my world I didn’t stop writing entirely – I blogged my way through surgery, chemo and radiotherapy – but my upbeat, humour-laden articles didn’t reflect the real fear and sadness I felt. I’m sad that I can’t read my journals from that time, but I made up for it with my novel, Single Bald Female. I listed myself on my dating profile as a ‘single, bald (possibly infertile) female’Do your research. To have a book published, you’ll need an agent. The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a brilliant resource to help you figure out how it works. Find a writing community. Writing is a lonely business and it’s easy to throw in the towel. Instead of sharing your work with friends and family (who will only say nice things), find a group of fellow writers who will give you honest, constructive criticism and encouragement. Witty and charming characters, twists and turns, and quietly devastating moments' Justin Myers, The Guyliner

I’ve written a diary since I was a little girl, but for some reason, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, I stopped. There’s an entry from June 2012 where I told myself I’d be just fine, then nothing, until I finished treatment eight months later.Around her, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script, with the big white weddings and the baby scans. With her own future so uncertain, the only thing Jess is sure of is that she’s being left behind. A decade after her diagnosis, Laura Price found that writing her novel, Single Bald Female, not only helped her to process her grief, but also provided her legacy.

Inspiring, candid and beautifully observed. Single Bald Female is an extraordinary, hugely moving story about the fight for survival. Life-affirming, tear-jerking and gorgeously written, I was sobbing at the end, and you will be too Thuli Madonsela speaks about the importance of SA's political future in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Breast Cancer Now is a company limited by guarantee registered in England (9347608) and a charity registered

The novel isn’t about my own life, but writing it helped me to process my grief through my characters and everything they represent. Write! Simply put, your book won’t write itself. I make notes on my phone whenever I think of good material, so that when I sit down at my computer, I have a starting point. If you chip away at it gradually, you’ll have a first draft before you know it. I was offered a book deal with HarperCollins in Germany shortly thereafter, but the UK deal took a little longer, with Brexit, a pandemic and a series of rejections thrown into the mix. But in late 2020, I signed with Pan Macmillan, and this year I finally get to share my story with the world. Single Bald Female is a story of love, friendship, resilience and survival, and I hope it falls into the hands of someone who truly adores it.’ So when I lost my long hair during chemotherapy after I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29, it didn’t feel like the end of the world. In some ways, it was an opportunity. Single Bald Female was published in April 2022, and seeing it in the window of Waterstones was one of the proudest moments of my life. Cancer may have taken away my chance of future motherhood, but I had created my own legacy. Don’t put off your dreams for a distant day that might never come

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