On Writing:
I remember my first book like I remember my first kiss. I was five.
I banged it out on my father's old typewriter, hammering the keys as hard as I could. It was a story about my toys. Whilst other little girls had dolls I played with dragons. So I guess I was always going to write genre fiction of some kind.
More books followed in loose leaf files and hand written notebooks.
Then, somewhere between university and having children of my own, I stopped.
But when you are driven to write it's not possible to stop for long. The stories were still there, bubbling away benath the surface, clawing their way towards the light, begging to be told.
And so I did. But this time I sought out other writers. I went on workshops. I studied the craft. This time I wanted to be published.
My first modest success came with the Yeovil Prize in 2005. A story of mine called 'The Trees' was commended in the short story category. For the first time I really started to believe in my writing.
In 2007 I sold my first short story to a UK based Science Fiction online zine called Hub. More sales followed. And hopefully there will be many more to come.
Then, in 2008, my children's novel Myth Making was Highly Commended, again in the Yeovil prize, and this, combined with me being shortlisted in the short story category as well, enabled me to win the Western Gazette Award for a local author.
Now my goal is to find an agent and publish my novels.