Pacing the floor of her Cwmbran home during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and government lockdown, Nicola Jane John felt frustrated. Unable to indulge in her favourite hobby - swimming - her nervous energy was rubbing off on her husband, who had a brilliant idea. He locked his wife in his study with a chilled bottle of wine and told her not to emerge until she’d put pen to paper and come up with a story for their local newspaper.