A BOOK written by a first-time author will be hitting the shelves next week.

Paul Grundy, 36, has fulfilled a lifetime ambition and published his first book, Epidemic.

“I’m looking forward to finally having it published and everyone getting the opportunity to read it,” said Paul, of Haydon End.

“I’ve always had a passion for writing but until now I never got around to doing it.”

Other than having several short stories placed in his school library for a few years, Paul had never given much thought to penning a novel. It was only after being made redundant from his sales job in December that he became inspired to put pen to paper.

He said: “For the first few weeks I was really down and feeling sorry for myself.

“However, once I realised I had so much time on my hands I started writing. It took me several months to write and for a time I became almost obsessed with the book.

“I was spending up to 10 hours a day writing so it was very much like a full-time job for a period.”

The book tells the story of the world falling apart after the outbreak of a deadly virus. The central character, Mark, wakes up in hospital and must find his family while uncovering the truth behind the outbreak.

Paul says that much of the driving force behind him writing the book has been his girlfriend, Nici Pasby, 27, who is training to be a midwife.

“She was the one who first encouraged me to start writing after I lost my job. She also wanted to keep reading each chapter as I wrote it, so it kept me writing,” he said.

Paul is using his experience in sales and marketing to get the book published and promoted. He put the first chapter of the book online for people to read and said the response was positive.

“The website has so far had more than 3,800 hits and nearly 600 have subscribed to read the second chapter,” he said.

Epidemic is due to be stocked at Waterstones in Swindon when it is published on June 24 and the first chapter is at www.pg-epidemic.com.