This thesis is a work of creative fiction accompanied by a critical/reflective essay. The dissertation is a novel (Be There First Thing) comprising thirteen chapters, each in the style of a short story, that give glimpses into the life of the protagonist, Lily Sled, beginning when she is eleven-years-old and ending when she is near thirty-years old. The first seven of these chapters are set in southern Ontario, Canada, while the last six are set in and around Swansea, Wales, employing a juxtaposition of place and the theme of the foreigner via linguistic and cultural similarities. The structure of this novel is similar to a Composite Novel, as it consists of story-like chapters, yet these stories are not autonomous, thus it is more closely aligned with the Bildungsroman genre, employing the technique of vignettes to illustrate the coming of age of the protagonist, while functioning as a novel of development. The accompanying essay seeks to analyse both the writing process and the literary significance of the novel itself.