The 30-year-old is only days away from the release of her second novel, The Ghost's Daughter, a black comedy about a bereaved woman who takes up boxing when she is haunted by the ghost of her father.

And, like many authors, Martina has drawn upon her own life experiences and family for inspiration.

"My father died prematurely when I was 23," she said. "And after he died, I started having very strange dreams about him so I decided to research it and talk to people about their dreams and visions – they were convinced there was an afterlife and that they were communicating with that person.

"The book is a dark comedy and it looks at how the whole family deals with it.

''My father was a boxer, as well as a few other things, but really the boxing is in it because the main protagonist does think she is going a bit crazy with all that she sees and wants to feel safe."

She added: "I have based a few characters on my family. They are not happy about it and they have only read the first 10 pages so far!"

Publishers loved The Ghost's Daughter and it was eventually snapped up, making all her years of hard work worthwhile.

"It felt fantastic," said Martina. "I have been writing for quite a while but the credit crunch has had an effect. Publishers were saying 'we love it but give it to us in another 12 months because we are not taking a risk on new authors at the moment.'

''But it is fantastic that is out there now, although part of me wants to re-edit it!"

The next 12 months promise to be a busy year for the mum-of-two whose first as yet unpublished book, Serial First Dater, is being turned into a sitcom by the BBC.

Then there is her third novel to finish, The Sins of the Next Generation, which she says is more serious in tone.

But Martina is more than happy to carry on writing away at her home, which she moved into from Hunmanby over a year ago.

She said: "I wanted somewhere with a little bit of land and it was such a fabulous place and of course I have got children and the schools around here are fantastic and my mum used to live in Ampleforth."

The Ghost's Daughter will be available from Amazon.com, Lulu.com or from Martinamercer.com from next week.