From childhood, Moira loved to write.Throughout school she __1__ writing, but pursuing (追求) it __2__ was never a possibility.Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse.“Medicine was a fairly __3__ choice，” Moira says, “and writing was a career where it wasn’t a __4__ that you’d have high income.”
She became a doctor but still wanted to write something.However, being a doctor was so __5__ that she didn’t take up writing until her thirties.She __6__ a novel — a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university.She got excellent __7__.Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to __8__ her.Suddenly, it seemed she was on her __9__ as an author.
“I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we __10__ all possible areas that she thought needed __11__.I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn’t hear anything.” It wasn’t long __12__ Moira found another agent who was __13__ if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person.She did the hard work and sent it off again.“I got back a really brief letter: ‘Thank you, I’m no longer interested.’ It was really __14__.”
A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time __15__ for her own enjoyment.She __16__ herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.
As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen.“The characters __17__ a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn’t thought about.It just __18__.” One day, an agent called from Australia.Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal.Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.
“__19__ it hadn’t been published I still gained so much from the __20__，” says Moira.
