A former regional press journalist has seen her first novel published as a paperback, after a limited hardback run earlier this year.

Linda Green, who worked for the Birmingham Daily News and Coventry Evening Telegraph among others, wrote the book based around the lives of a group of characters in a newsroom.

The "chick noir" literature, 'I Did a Bad Thing', shows the main character as a successful journalist who has a guilty past and a host of issues unravel throughout the book…

Now a freelance journalist, Linda, (37), began her career as a trainee reporter in 1988 soon moving into senior positions within regional journalism and has since concentrated on a career as a novelist.

She was inspired by the many characters and personalities she met during her time in a newsroom, and said: "What I hope comes over in I Did a Bad Thing is the ups and downs of the crazy world of regional newspapers, the indomitable spirit of the journalists, the characters who made it, for me, the best profession in the world and the sadness I felt watching the heart being ripped out of local newspapers by the constant cut-backs and redundancies."

Reflecting further on her journey from newsroom journalist to author, the hard graft of creating a fictional world which others would enjoy appears to have paid off.

She said: "It's always been my ambition to get a novel published. It's taken nine years of hard work to get to this point and I had more than 100 rejections from agents on my first unpublished novel but I am so glad I persevered and wrote this one.

"I've had some good reviews in national magazines, Tesco have just ordered 10,000 copies for their stores nationwide, Waterstones are featuring the novel in their 'paperbacks of the year' promotion and WHSmith are including it in their 'Top 200 paperbacks' promotion so it's a very exciting time."

'I Did a Bad Thing' is published By Headline Review, at £6.99.