A former regional press journalist who went freelance to follow her dream of writing of a novel is to publish her first book - set in a fictional Birmingham newsroom.

Linda Green penned I Did A Bad Thing, after being inspired by her time on newspapers such as the Enfield Independent, Birmingham Daily News and Coventry Telegraph.

And although not based on any one newspaper, the 37-year-old said she couldn't help but draw on her experiences as well as using her own imagination.

She told holdthefrontpage: "The idea of setting it in a newsroom was the obvious thing to do because I spent ten years working in that environment.

"It is also a great backdrop for a novel because you have the excitement of the newsroom, the plethora of characters and all the wacky things that happen in a newsroom to fall back on.

"It is a work of fiction and no character is entirely based on one person, but you can't help but draw on your experiences and there are a few character traits of certain people that were too good not to use."

I Did A Bad Thing tells the story of successful chief reporter Sarah Roberts, who is trying be a good person but fears her past mistakes may be coming back to haunt her.

When she spies a past boyfriend's name on the list of interviewees for a new political editor at the newspaper where she works, she's convinced that the 'bad' person she used to be is coming back to ruin her future, and the book asks if we can ever truly escape our guilty secrets or if we will always be made accountable.

Linda admits the theme is also inspired by her own 'bad thing'.

She said: "I was the good girl at school. The one who was a goody two shoes who didn't smoke or drink or do anything scandalous or rebellious. The one who was perceived as a 'nice girl'.

"Then I met a man who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Unfortunately he was engaged to someone else. Suddenly I found myself cast in a very different role, agreeing to secret liaisons and being overwhelmed by guilt.

"Eventually he broke off the engagement to get together with me. We are still happily married and have a gorgeous son. I like to think that justifies what we did. But part of me still feels absolutely awful about what I did."

After ten years in regional newspapers, Linda began freelancing in 1998, working for various national newspapers, and began writing her first novel which so far has not been published.

In 2003 she began writing I Did A Bad Thing, and after taking a break to have a baby boy in October 2004, she won a publishing deal with Headline Review.

A limited run is now available in hardback, and it will get its full release in paperback in October.

Linda said: "It has been a long time coming. The idea of going freelance was to give me time to write a novel, so I've been working towards it for nearly ten years.

"It's very exciting that it's nearly here."