I cannot recall a time when books were not part of my life. As a child I began to absorb the written word from an early age. One of my first memories of reading is a book who's title I have never been able to recall. Sometimes I wonder if it was a book at all or if I dreamed up the story myself. I think I borrowed it from one of my older sisters, but none of them remembers the story in which a young girl goes to boarding school and uncovers some sort of mystery involving jade tears. I used to daydream that I was that girl. I did that with most books - always striving to be someone else.
It wasn't that I had an unhappy childhood. I was just never very confident in my own skin - something that I have never grown out of. It was always preferable to me to imagine myself as a plucky girl detective, a powerful witch or even a hobbit, rather than face the plain, chubby girl that I was. I think it was in my teens that the stories started to pour out of my head and into notebooks. And so it was that I began my life lived in words.
I have always wanted to write, but I have always been afraid to let anyone read what I wrote. A few years ago, desperate to earn some money I turned my hand to freelance writing. It seemed the perfect solution, I got to write - albeit about some pretty boring topics - and no-one knew it was me! However, I ended up not being paid for the work which put me off trying again. A few months down the line I was offered some more work and I decided to give it a go. It worked out and I was soon earning a small amount from writing about things I really had little or no knowledge of. At the same time I had began my studies with Open University towards a degree in Literature. So here I was doing both professional and academic writing. When the time came to select my next module with OU, I opted for Creative Writing (courses A174 & A215 for those interested) and much of what you see here is based on writing exercises and assignments.
Nowadays, I am more confident in my writing and willing to share it among friends and passers by. I am now hoping to be published some time soon. Professionally speaking, I am now co-director of Panther Media Ltd, where my key role is content management. I do more editing than writing these days, but still turn my hand to to odd press release here and there.
So this is my life, lived in words. Here you will find, extracts of my writing, reviews of my favorite books and random thoughts and journal entries. I hope you enjoy something along the way and I welcome all comments.
