Han Solo, Passing 14,000 and The Liebster Award!!!!

Okay, first I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to all my amazing talented followers for pushing this little blog past 14,000 hits!!! That’s truly humbling and astounding. So, whether you’re regular visitors, weekly watchers, new to the site, fly-by, one-stop-shop, pop-in pop-out kind of visitors, or hang out pull up your chair and relax visitors, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This blog would be nothing without your support! 😀 xx

Right, before I get too gushy on you, I’ll get on with the post.

As I mentioned in my last nomination, The Versatile Blogger award, I’ve been very forgetful regarding the awards which have so kindly been bestowed upon me, but, I’ve now caught up with this latest one, the Liebster Award. Again, huge thanks must go out to the gorgeous, talented and thoroughly lovely Kay Kauffman (http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/), who nominated me for this award in May. Kay is an extraordinarily gifted fantasy author with a love of nascar, a gift for cooking and a huge heart!

Apart from being a fellow member of The Alliance of Worldbuilders – http://theallianceofworldbuilders.weebly.com/index.html & http://www.facebook.com/TheAllianceOfWorldbuilders along with myself and a bunch of fantasy/sci-fi geeks, Kay Kauffman has also established the most amazing blog which I highly recommend you all checking out! http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/  – Thank you Kay! 😀 x

As usual, there are a few rules for this:

The Rules:

1. List eleven random facts about yourself.
2. Answer the eleven questions that were asked of you by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Nominate eleven other blogs for the Liebster Award and link to their blogs.
4. Notify the bloggers of their award.
5. Ask the award winners eleven questions, to be answered upon acceptance of the award.

Umm…I’m noticing a pattern in the number 11!

Okay, so here is where I bend the rules a little…ahem…okay, break the rules again. Rules are made for breaking, right? The Liebster Award is supposed to be for blogs who have 200 followers or less. Well, as the lovely Kay Kauffman (http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/) suspected, I am very lucky to have more followers than that, first rule broken. but since she was kind enough to nominate me, I’m gladly accepting!

Okay…er…first eleven random facts about me:

1. I’m a terrible insomniac and have been since I was about 14.
2. I’m petrified of spiders but okay with snakes.
3. I’ve nearly died at least 4 times, drowning, car crash, decapitation, run over, and that’s not counting all the times I fell twenty feet out of trees with hardly a bruise or scratch – I’ve never broken a bone!
4. I have dreadful eyesight yet can see amazing details close up, like microscope vision, great for drawing and I ADORE looking at maps!
5. I could talk before I could walk and was writing and drawing before 3yrs.
6. My first crush was on Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, I even posted an airmail love letter to Jackson Hole, Wyoming!
7. I am very much a country girl, born and bred and love nature and wild landscapes – preferably with no people around, just the elements and me!
8. I love animals and detest cruelty of any kind. I’m anti all ‘blood sports’ like fox hunting.
9. I love green vegetables and have a real thing for runner beans!
10. Star Wars was the very first film I ever saw at the cinema. It got me totally hooked on science-fiction and fantasy, but it also seeded a deep desire in me, ever since I was 4yrs old, to be an astronaut. To this day, I still have vivid dreams of flying my own spaceship!
11. When I was 17 I went to Communist Russia on a school trip. Our plane was diverted to an airstrip north of Moscow due to a storm and the KGB boarded our plane and took our passports. It was very scary. I was frisked by one of the guards and we were all detained for four hours in a blizzard. It was an amazing trip though. We went to Lenin’s tomb – incredible. It was like a dream. Although he’d been dead for over 70 years at the time, he looked like he had just fallen asleep! Seriously freaky!

The questions Kay Kauffman (http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/) wanted answered:

1. If you could have lunch with any one person, living or dead, who would it be and why? Probably my personal hero, David Attenborough.
2. What is your favourite song and why? Mull of Kintyre by Wings. It was the first record I ever bought and even though I know it’s cheesy as hell, I still adore it. Something to do with being a soundtrack to nature I think.
3. What is your dream job? Besides being a writer? Probably a film director. I love telling stories and being a highly visual person that would be ideal. Weirdly enough, my career’s advisor said ‘writer or film director’ as two of my best most suitable jobs!
4. What is your favourite season? Spring, everything awakening, coming back to life and the promise of Summer yet to come.
5. Why did you start blogging? Oops…I read this as ‘when’ – 26th January 2012! Why? Umm. To be honest I don’t know, I just kind of fell into it and found I loved it!
6. What is your favourite comfort food? Bread and Marmite.
7. If you had a time turner like Hermione’s in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, what would you do with it? Sorry, I’ve never read any HP more of a Tolkien girl, so don’t know what that is. I’m guessing it’s a time machine device or something? Uh…I’d probably go back in time and undo some mistakes, do a few things differently given the choice. I don’t live with regrets, but I’ve often made choices for other people and not for myself.
8. If you could have lunch with one of the captains from Star Trek or one of the characters from Star Wars, who would you choose and why? Ooh, that’s hard. The 12yr old me would definitely go with Han Solo, now though, I think I’d pick Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk, he’s kinda cute and I think he’s a funny guy. It would be a fun lunch!
9. Do you use your cell phone mostly for talking or mostly for other things? Mostly for texting, but mostly not at all. I’m an email girl not a cell/mobile phone girl.
10. What makes you dance? Most music.
11. And the follow-up, what makes you sing? “You’re Just Too Good To Be True…” & “Sweet Caroline…ba ba ba”, the classic drunken sing-a-long songs!

There you go! Now for my eleven nominees, as always, these really are in no order at all!

1. Tricia Drammeh – http://blog.triciadrammeh.com/ &  http://theclaimingwords.com/
2. Lindsey Parsons – http://lindseyjparsons.wordpress.com/
3. Susan Finlay – http://susansbooks37.wordpress.com/
4. Kate Jack – http://kateannejack.wordpress.com/
5. Andrea Baker – http://www.andreabakerauthor.com/ & http://rosewallauthor.wordpress.com/
6. Will Macmillan Jones – http://willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com/
7. Jane Dougherty – http://janedougherty.wordpress.com/
8. Lisa Scullard – http://lisascullard.wordpress.com/ & http://hardinkcafe.wordpress.com/
9. Emily Mckeon – http://theabsenteeblogger.blogspot.com/
10. Joanne Hall – http://hierath.wordpress.com/
11. Ashen Venema – http://courseofmirrors.wordpress.com/

Wow…there are a LOT of lists on this post! Okay, now for the last fun part…he he he!

Eleven questions I would like my nominees to answer, should they choose to accept the award. Here goes!

• What was the first book you ever read, and the last one you read/are reading?
• What superpower do you wish you had and why?
• Better to burn like a comet or fade away? Quick and bright or slow and dull? How best you do live your life?
• If you were transported into a Grimm’s Fairy Tale, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or one of G.R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones stories, which character would you play and why?
• Joss Whedon or JJ Abrams?
• Favourite movie and why?
• Favourite all time character from fiction and why?
• DC or Marvel?
• Guilty pleasure?
• If you were granted one wish, what would it be and why?
• What book has had the most profound affect upon you and why?

There you go, a mixture of absurdly silly, shallow questions with a few sensible ones thrown in! 😉

How would YOU answer these? Eh? Huh? Wanna give it a try? Yes, you sitting there in the corner, yes YOU! Come on over here and ask yourself these questions, come join our little nerdfest! 😀 xxx

Celebration! My 100th post and zooming past 7000 hits!

Celebrations come in all sizes…small and intimate to the grandiose, and in all colours – from little hints of pastel, hues to match your mood, to the vibrancy of fireworks or the acid splashes of billowing streamers and balloons.

Well, this is a little celebration for a little achievement but a very special one to me.

At the end of January 2012 I started this blog. I had no grand intentions at the time, no aspirations beyond wanting to share my passions and thoughts in a random sort of way. Having never been able to adhere to the regimented nature needed to write a daily diary entry, this blog has been as close as I can get to it. A way of making some semblance of sense from my chaotic life, of organising my thoughts and perhaps a forum for discussing creativity, the language of imagination.

Blogs are as individual as their creators. Some become mere extensions of the people behind them, streams of consciousness drifting over the internet. For me, it is that, but is also a place to tell stories, share poetry, life events, illuminate my journey to becoming a published writer and all the strange oddities that happen to you along the way.

A little nook n’ cranny amidst the ebbing flow of the web. An ocean of information and dead-ends, a place to get lost in or be swallowed whole…

This is a little modest blog, unassuming, not showy, a welcoming and cosy snug with an over-sized hearth and a shabby rug which reeks of candle smoke and coal but a place which promises warmth and comfort, good advice and honesty. A home of creative thinking (hopefully) and somewhere simply to be.

To ponder…isn’t that what every writer does? To ponder, to think, to imagine, to dream…ahhhh…per chance to dream!

So, on this my 100th post, I say a genuine heartfelt thank you to every passing visitor, every friend and acquaintance, every fly-by one stop blogger, every lingerer, lurker or frequent returner…

THANK YOU!         THANK YOU!         THANK YOU!

Passing 5,000!

Wow! I’ve passed 5,000 views!

That’s 5,000 wondrously curious, literary minded people popping in to read some poetry, short stories, travelogues, diary pieces, to read about my upcoming debut novel, White Mountain, and the creative journey it has taken me on…or to simply to check in and say ‘Hi’!

Whatever your reason for visiting, pull up a chair, relax and stay a while! 😛

It’s funny – I’m sure such things may be ‘run of the mill’ to others, but I am continually surprised and very humbled that my little unassuming blog has attracted such numbers. I can’t believe it, especially given my shamefully sporadic postings.

So I really must take the opportunity to say a MASSIVE and genuine thank you to every single visitor!

Whatever this little blog may be or may become, any success it has is entirely down to YOU!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

😀 xxx

Inspired? Hell, yes!

Well after receiving the Sunshine Blogger Award from the lovely Kay Kauffman http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/ I’m utterly thrilled and humbled to be nominated for another award! The very talented and dragon friendly, Lindsey J Parsons  http://lindseyjparsons.wordpress.com/, has nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! Wow, wow and wow! I’m so touched!

A huge thank you to Lindsey J Parsons. Lindsey is a fellow fantasy writer, lover of dragons, breather of fire and inspiring blogger herself. Please check out her wonderful site: http://lindseyjparsons.wordpress.com/ and be inspired yourself! Highly recommended!

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Nominate other bloggers you think deserve the award, and post on their blog to let them know they’ve been nominated.

*****

Right, ummm…seven things about me, eh? Here goes!

Seven Things:

1.      I have nine lives, as in a cat with nine lives, not previous reincarnated versions of myself…scary thought! I have currently used at least 3 of them as I have nearly died 3 times! I drowned and was brought back to life, was almost decapitated (a real close shave!) and was involved in a motorway pile up which wrecked my car and should have killed me, but left me with only scratches. I’d love to think I’m a superhero aka ‘Unbreakable’, but sadly no. That’s not counting all my mishaps as an adventurous Huckleberry Finn type tomboy, like falling twenty feet out of a tree while trying to build myself a tree house with some rusty nails and scrap pieces of wood I’d found!

I figure I’m doing alright as I still have 6 lives left! 😀

2.     I used to play the piano and reached Stage 4 of my examinations before quitting, something I still regret to this day. I had absolutely no natural ability for it, it was hard slog all the way, but I did enjoy it and my elderly music teacher, Miss Allen was a delight. Although I can’t read music anymore, I still remember and play one piece by heart, called ‘Breakers’ (C major so it’s easy!), which reminds me of the ocean and breaking waves…very soporific! One day I will return to my piano playing days, though I doubt I will ever find a gentler soul than Miss Allen to teach me.

3.     I love art and thankfully, unlike my music, I do have natural talent for it. Before I could walk I was drawing and painting with amazing precision for a two and three year old. At four I was drawing complex designs from art books and the decorative china we had around the house, including a very ornate Japanese cheese dish with birds all over it…don’t know why I remember that! As a young child at school I used draw portraits of people, or anything they liked, for pennies, not sure if I was being a little entrepreneur or a kindergarten con-man!

The first time I went to London and saw Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Madonna of the Rocks’ and Caravaggio’s ‘Supper at Emmaus’, at the National Gallery, I cried. It was so moving and inspirational to me. THAT was how I wanted to draw and paint!

I got a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, with a specialism in drawing, painting, sculptural ceramics and photography (studio & landscape), which I love! Dark rooms are wonderfully magical places!

Anyway, I’ve been a particular fan of Caravaggio’s work my whole life, and though I can’t paint like him, it doesn’t stop me trying! 😛

4.     I once kissed Michael Foot on the cheek! For those of you who are too young to remember or for my overseas friends, Michael Foot was this archaic looking gentleman with a wild scruffy shock of white hair, who was the leader of the Labour Party back in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Being a lefty myself, I’ll always believe in helping those less fortunate than myself, but I must say, having a photograph of me kissing this old chap – wasn’t my best move! Ewwwwww!

5.     I do like my food, especially Italian, which is clearly visible on my hips! I adore Marmite – there, I’ve said it. Love it, love it, love it! When I’m on my own, I always prefer to have my dessert first then my savoury. That way, you get the sweet stuff out of the way and then you can fully appreciate and savour your main course! 😀

Alcohol and me don’t mix though. Something about the fermentation process, but so much as a sip of wine or beer and I want to throw up. Of course, it could be that I just have immature taste buds like the rest of me!

6.     I do have some strange quirks I admit. I am incredibly bendy, though you’d never guess it to look at me. Now, although I can no longer do the splits or get my feet behind my head, I can hoist them up to my shoulders and as all the children I have ever taught in my classes can attest, I do an amazing above the door high kick! That’s right…I’m a high kicking teacher! Damn, if only that was a usable skill in life. 😛

7.      Writing will always be my first love and passion. As a kid I was writing stories before I could really do anything else. Novel ideas, poetry, short stories and ideas for world building – some of it in incredible detail. I literally have bags and bags, reams and reams of character bios, story plots, background material for worlds, sketches of planets, ships, dwellings, really mostly rubbish, but it has always just been a part of who I am. The stories that always inspired me the most and fuelled my desire to be a writer, were always fantasy and science-fiction. When I wasn’t playing air guitar or climbing trees, I was buried in some sci-fi or fantasy book. If you cannot claw your way out of your reality, you can grow wings and soar instead!

Now, down to my nominees. There are many fabulous bloggers out there, but these are the ones I am most inspired by.

In no order at all, because they are all equally fabulous for different reasons…

Tricia Drammeh  http://theclaimingwords.com/

Ryan Holmes (Griffin’s Quill)  http://griffinsquill.com/

Morgen Bailey  http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/

Rose Wall http://rosewall.weebly.com/

Hazel Butler http://aadenianink.com/

The Alliance of Worldbuilders http://theallianceofworldbuilders.weebly.com/

Mandy Ward (WelcomeTo Wherever)  http://welcometowherever.wordpress.com/

Ashen Venema  http://courseofmirrors.wordpress.com/

Lesley Carter (Bucket List Publications)  http://lesleycarter.wordpress.com/

Again, I would love to nominate Kate Jack http://kateannejack.wordpress.com/,  Will MacMillan Jones http://willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com/ , Kay Kauffman http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/ and of course Lindsey Parsons herself http://lindseyjparsons.wordpress.com/, but Lindsey has already, quite rightfully, nominated their wonderful blogs, so I won’t repeat. But please do check them out folks, inspiring every single one of them!

…in yourself and you can achieve anything! 😀 xx

Blog Awards! The techno-idiot gets two nominations!

Every time I think my IT skills are improving, something happens that reminds me of just what a techno-idiot I am.

I was very VERY kindly nominated by the lovely Kay Kauffman for the Sunshine Blogger Award. What a wonderfully kind and lovely thing to do! I was thrilled that Kay had been nominated and had then nominated me.

BUT, it was only today after being nominated for another blog award, Very Inspiring Blogger Award, by the equally lovely and kind Lindsey Parsons, that the penny finally dropped.

D’uh! You are supposed to answers questions and nominate fellow bloggers!

Firstly, a HUGE thank you to Kay Kauffman. I’m utterly thrilled and rather humbled! 😀 xx

Here is Kay’s blog http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/ – a wonderful mixture of poetry, short stories and musings on life. Highly recommended!

So, here are the rules for all those that get nominated:

Rules

• Link the award to the person who gave it to me.
• Answer questions about myself – see below.
• Nominate ten bloggers for the award.
• Link my nominees to the post and comment on their blog, letting them know about the award.

*****

1.What is your favorite Christmas movie?
Although I am a complete film nut, I’m one of those people that loves obscure films and remembers things like directors, release dates, every actors’ name…ummm I’m really sounding like a nut here, but I’m not big on Christmas films. I guess I don’t like anything ‘designed’ to illicit a certain response, which holiday films invariably do. It’s the freak in me that likes to push my own buttons rather than have someone else contrive to do it. So, my choices are remarkably narrow. I’d probably go for either Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, or something wonderfully daft like Trading Places and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (yes, I know it’s not a Christmas movie, but it’s SUCH fun!). 😀

2.What is your favorite flower?
I love white flowers, the purity and simplicity of them. Daisies, lilies, tulips, anemones…but my favourite are poppies. Poppies are such delicate papery flowers yet they have such a vivacity about them. They herald the coming of summer and warm hazy lazy days. I love red poppies, but white and Himalayan blue poppies are my very favourite!

3.What is your favorite non-alcoholic beverage?

I drink lots of milk. My favourite drink is a toss up between Shloer, Elderflower cordial or my own kick-ass homemade lemonade. The secret is a squeeze of lime! 😉 Do love a good hot chocolate though.

4.What is your passion?
Writing, writing, writing. Other than that, my problem is that I have too many passions really. I love drawing, painting, sculpture and photography – creating something special from a blank canvas, lump of clay or camera lens. For me, being creative is as important as eating and breathing…two things I’m rather fond of! 😉

5.What is your favorite time of year?
Definitely summer…the promise of warmth. I love all the seasons, though Autumn has always meant ‘spider season’ and ‘school’ and another birthday coming round. Spring is a wondrously rejuvenating time of year but so often drenched in rain. I love the quiet peace and stillness of winter, but nothing compares to those precious few days of the year where you can lie on the grass under cerulean skies and feel the sun on your face! Bliss! Summer means adventure and possibilities…

6.What is your favorite time of day?

That’s easy to answer – night owl here! Daytime is for work, job, stresses of life. I love the night, when everyone is asleep and the world is quiet. Those magical few hours of stillness, with nothing but the soft night breeze and a halo of stars drifting above you…that’s when the magic truly happens!

7.What is your favorite physical activity?

Lol! Ummm…I could have been naughty there! I love walking especially in wild places. The wilder the better. The countryside, especially the remoter parts of it, hold such a mystery to me. There is nothing better than climbing a hill or mountain or tor and viewing nature at its best. Very humbling and deeply profound.

8.What is your favorite vacation?

I love Italy. The culture, the history, the people, the food, everything about it. I’ve been about four times now and it is such a special place. I love Rome but Tuscany, Umbria and Florence is my favourite. The art galleries alone are intoxicating. But, more than anywhere I’ve ever travelled to, New Zealand will still always be my favourite. If it is possible to have a ‘soul connection’ to a place, then New Zealand is it. Astounding, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, humbling, unforgettable. Back in the winter (their summer) of 1997/98 I spent four months travelling around the North and South Island having adventures and awakening my senses. A real odyssey and life-changing experience. They filmed Lord Of The Rings there for a reason, the place is simply magical! Ahhhh… 😀

*****

Right, very difficult to choose just ten, but here are my nominees for the Sunshine Blogger Award  (in no order) :

1. Morgen Bailey http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/

2. Lindsey J Parsons http://lindseyjparsons.wordpress.com/

3. Ryan Holmes (Griffin’s Quill) http://griffinsquill.com/

4. Ashen Venema (Course of Mirrors) http://courseofmirrors.wordpress.com/

5. Will MacMillan Jones http://willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com/

6. Mandy Ward (Welcome to Wherever) http://welcometowherever.wordpress.com/

7. Fantasy In Motion http://fantasyinmotion.wordpress.com/

8. Andy Szpuk http://andyszpuk.wordpress.com/

9.That Fantasy Blog http://thatfantasyblog.com/

10. Fabulous Realms http://ashsilverlock.com/

I would like to mention the wonderful blogs of Katrina Jack http://kateannejack.wordpress.com/ , Tricia Drammeh http://theclaimingwords.com/, A.F.E. Smith http://afesmith.com/ and Emily McKeon http://www.theabsenteeblogger.blogspot.com/ but I’m trying not to mention those which Kay already nominated. 😀 xx

Manically juggling and Hitting 3,000!

Like so many of us, I find myself constantly juggling and always trying to squeeze yet more precious time out of each day. It’s a common malaise nowadays, when we are all working longer hours with heavier workloads and we find the work/life balance completely out of kilter.

For me, between a VERY full-time job, a hectic career with all the usual and unusual stresses and workloads that that entails, writing my second novel, writing other projects and short stories, promoting and marketing my first novel (White Mountain, published 30th September this year), doing my artwork and a busy home life…I find that manic juggling game increasingly more difficult.

With so many balls flying through the air, how do we keep going without dropping the odd one?

For some, it becomes a daily routine of list writing. Charting out each event that needs attending to and prioritising the most important. I must admit, that despite my fierce loathing of anything too organised and too routine, as I’ve always loved ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ so to speak (for me spontaneity IS life), even I have had to grudgingly adopt this formalised structure. I’m sure for those fortunate few to be ‘ladies or gents of leisure’, the choices in life are perhaps easier, but for the rest of us workers, you HAVE to list and prioritise your life to some extent, if you are to prevent those balls from crashing all over the place!

My advice? If writing IS your life…give yourself time to do it! MAKE time to do it…even if that’s at 2 in the morning!

KEEP WRITING!

To that point, I work during the day but am a night owl and DO ensure that I write everyday, whether it’s a section of narrative, some scribbled plot ideas or some poetry.

So, amidst all my frantic juggling, despite my considerable absence of late and the very sporadic blogging from my initial, ‘Daily Hello’ intentions, my little blog has now passed the 3,000 hits mark!

Wow and wow!

I am genuinely amazed and very touched. A HUGE shout out to all my friends, supporters and family who have been utterly amazing in their kindness and support, and who have kept me laughing and inspired in equal measure! I owe you all a great debt.

THANK YOU!

😀

 

Life…but not as we know it!

I have just had the unpleasant experience of having my Twitter account hacked last night, causing untold mayhem amongst myself and my friends!

No matter how savvy, how sophisticated we think we are, we are quickly reduced to wide-eyed children when something goes wrong…as it often does.

Having received a message from a friend, I opened it and was promptly hacked. The little blighter’s then proceeded to work through my contacts by sending out the same intriguing message. Oh dear, what a mess! Several apologies and changed passwords later and I think…think, the matter is sorted. But it got me thinking…

Firstly, an obvious point here, but as so many of us are increasingly reliant on the web for everything from social media, to banking, insurance even mortgages, we are also SO vulnerable to these sorts of random attacks. With identity theft on the increase, are we really safe on the web?

And secondly, it got me thinking about the individuals that do these sorts of things. Now, I’m well known for having a bit of the anarchist in me from time to time, daft as a brush, anti-establishment to a degree, and certainly non-conformist, but random hacking just seems so utterly pointless. They are not hacking a fat-cat company swindling the masses, they don’t even seem to be trying to fraudulently take people’s identities…they really are just doing it for the sake of doing it!

A friend said it was the modern equivalent of a ‘brick’. That there will always be vandals in society and these are just that…mindless vandals.

Yeap, I agree…but again, why? Why vandalise the area you live in? Why destroy when you can create? Vandalism may be in the eye of the beholder when it comes to graffiti – being a Bristol gal, I happen to love Banksey, but I know others don’t. But one thing everyone agrees on, is the utter mindlessness of a brick through a window, a concrete block thrown in the path of a train (yesterday a teenager threw a bicycle at on oncoming train). The consequences could have been utterly horrific!

Disaffected youth? Yes. But why have we as a society so completely failed to inspire these people to do something more creative with their energies? It sounds so old-fashioned, so parochial to say “Get a hobby!”. But in a strange sense, that is what a lot of our youth needs. In a climate where unemployment is spiralling out of control and our youth simply cannot find jobs or even training apprenticeships, if they had a creative outlet, be it art, music, writing, sport etc it would open up their potential and channel their energies in a far more positive direction.

But…I’m probably just a naive dreamer. All I know is that life can be damn hard, and if I hadn’t of had a whole host of interests and hobbies to occupy and inspire me, I’d be in a very different place!

😀

Author Bio – Me, Myself & I?

I love talking about my work, my passions, my experiences, and most especially my writing…but I HATE talking about myself. So here goes…Originally from a sleepy village north of Bristol, I currently live in the Cotswolds with my family and my four enormous white wolves!

I am a writer, traditionally trained fine artist and am an illustrator for HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and other publishers. I am also a shortlisted nominee for the 2018 British Fantasy Awards in the Best Artist category! Yay!!!! 😀 I have a BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art with a specialism in painting, sculptural ceramics and photography and a Post-Grad in teaching. I was a full-time teacher for 16 years and am now a librarian. However, my first passion has always been for painting and writing stories and poetry, which I have done since I was a child – basically as soon as I could grapple with a pencil!  I am a painter and artist, and divide my time between writing, teaching and my artwork.  I adore travelling (when I get the chance), and have a deep affinity and profound love of landscapes, particularly those of New Zealand and Dartmoor, which I find incredibly inspiring.

I enjoy stargazing, playing chess, watching films (especially sci-fi & fantasy) and buying yet more bookcases for my growing library!  I would describe myself as a ‘lover of wild places and the written word’ and am a bit of a self-confessed nerd! I have wildly eclectic tastes in music from opera to heavy rock, classical to Motown. I love exploring museums and art galleries and am interested in ancient history, archaeology, astronomy, anthropology, fantasy, chess, films, natural history, science fiction, etymology, geology, geography, photography etc etc etc! In fact, when asked what my interests are, I usually smile and reply, “EVERYTHING!”

My motto for life is: “First, do no harm!” – Having unfortunately known some truly evil people in my life who destroy everything they touch, it’s a very good motto to live your life by!

Accordingly, my advice for life is: Avoid toxic people – life is too damn short to do anything else! 🙂

Unusual facts?: I’ve nearly died at least three times, once by drowning, once by near decapitation (obviously it was a close shave, so to speak, but I’m still here!), and once in a motorway crash.

I am somewhat of a walking contradiction, loud, quiet, bubbly, shy, social yet a hermit, intelligent about everything but not what’s important, complicated, simple, a perfectionist but messy, fiercely brave in protecting others but a coward when sticking up for myself, a tigress, a doormat, an optimist, a cynic…What can I say? A blend of very silly and sensible!

Without getting too personal here…I’ve witnessed a lot of violence growing up, which has certainly influenced the darker elements of my work. However, my fiction tends to be pure fantasy escapism, my saviour in bad times. When you cannot claw your way out of your reality, you can grow wings and soar instead!

So…that’s me! 😀