welcome to my world

Early Works

I still have one of my first pieces of writing. It was ambitious - self illustrated, and featured a character interacting with a younger version of themselves. It was also less than a page long, with letters at least an inch tall. I was four. You have to start somewhere. 

I have always loved words. The tooth fairy understood that, dropping off a copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden in lieu of payment for my first missing tooth. I grew up with Jim Hawkins, the Railway Children, Marcus Aquila and Esca. 

AND then I got old enough that my library card wasn't locked to the children's section. The two biggest transformative finds for me were Meghan Whalen Turners's The Queen's Thief series (you should be able to carbon date me by the fact that there were only two books in the series at the time - love you Meghan!) and the multitudes of perspectives that made up the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now dubbed "Legends" by Disney). I had discovered the worlds of Sci Fi and Fantasy, and there was no going back. 

 Skill Development

Having friends who read and write, and where sharing writing with each other - even if only a page at a time- is encouraged, kept me putting pen to paper. 

I started collecting rejection letters for the occasional short story, wrote essays for college, wrote research papers and a scientific journal article that was published in a pretty prestigious journal. I got my dream job - and still have it. I travelled overseas (fun fact - I was perched on a bunk bed in a Berlin hostel as I scrolled down the Rooglewood press page to find the winners of the first Fairytale Competition). I had my heart and my mental health broken, fortunately not at the same time or by the same person. I met a deeply kind man and married him. 

 Current Endeavours

And now, well, I'm here. Starting a blog about my writing, in the process of editing a story that's going to be published in 6 months’ time. Realising that the idea of turning some of my original worlds and their inhabitants into query letters and maybe into books is something that with a lot of work, might actually be possible. 

Welcome to my wonderful world. Let's learn how to fly.