IN JUST three years, Kate Donne has gone from being an unpublished writer to plotting a potential musical for her hit trilogy series.

The Alva woman kickstarted her career as an author with the opening chapters of the Bobby 'Chicken Legs' Muldoon series, drawing on her upbringing in the Gorbals, Glasgow.

It was the first of three self-published novellas, which first hit the shelves two years ago.

Since then, it’s been a whirlwind for Kate, who now has her sights set on revisiting her drama background to bring her Weegie dialect stories to a new audience.

And should the coming-of-age-tale make it to the stage, the author hopes to see the production run in the Citizen's Theatre, as the story is set in the surrounding area.

She told the Advertiser: “I didn’t plan to turn it into a play or a musical when I was writing it, but I was trained in my time at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow to think in pictures and visualise things – so I think I was writing a play from the start without realising it.

“Then at the launch for the first book, we did a dramatic interpretation where we got professional actors and students from the Conservatoire to act it out. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was amazing.

“All my friends told me I had to take it further.”

For now, it is unclear exactly what form the upcoming adaptation will take.

Talks are ongoing with a number of potential venues and funders for the project, but Kate has some ideas for where she’d like it to go.

The author said: “My dream is to turn it into a musical, although I might have to do a stage play first depending on funding.

“I’m hoping to launch it next year. I’d love to do a show at the Citizen’s Theatre when it reopens in 2020.

"That’s where the books are set, so it would be nice to do one there.”

Her own experiences growing up in the Gorbals in the 60s feature heavily in the books, and that isn’t expected to change for the stage edition, which she says shouldn’t be great a departure from her original writing.

“I may have to take some dramatic license," she added. "But most of the books are dialogue which is pretty easily lifted.

“I’ve got some ideas for new characters though. There’s a bit in the book where there’s a brawl at a wedding – I'd like to get a local band in for that.”