| I remember being pretty obsessive about writing, even from a young age. I
wrote poems about my parents not understanding me and I wrote a play at school about Henry II and Thomas A
Becket that filled a whole exercise book. I poured out teenage angst in
verse. (Who doesn't?) I even did some creative writing at teacher's training college in
Manchester. And then at the age of 20 I forgot about writing for nine years
and did other (more normal?) things like office work, getting married and
having children. |
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Me with daughter Anna at a book signing for Drop Dead Gorgeous in WH Smiths. |
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Writing grabbed me again quite by chance when I tried to sign on to an adult education pottery class that was full. Flicking through the brochure I found… the creative writing class that I now teach. At that time it was led by a wonderful lady called Margaret May who has
inspired many writers over the years, and under her guidance I began to
write poetry, short stories and articles. I also joined the West Sussex
Writers Club (see links). I was hooked. |
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Me with my daughter Alexa |
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The very first article I had published, in Mother and Baby, was about my four year-old son’s unshakeable belief that he could fly. It was an exciting moment - to be published for the first time - and it made me believe that I really could do it... I went on to write short stories for women’s magazines such as Bella, Take A Break, Best and My Weekly and eventually tried a novel. It was typed on a manual typewriter and returned by a literary agent as reading more like a psychological dissertation than a novel... I know now that most novelists have one or two early efforts hidden away from the public eye and that it's simply part of the learning cycle - writers have to learn their craft like every other creative artist. In the meantime I spent every spare moment writing novel number 2 whilst looking after my two children and doing an assortment of part-time jobs, and guess what… Yes, that was rejected too. Undaunted and now armed with a word-processor, I embarked on novel number 3 which became Other Summers. I re-married, started an OU course, had another baby and just when life was at its most chaotic, I managed to find an agent and Other Summers found a publisher – in the space of a week. I wrote 5 more novels for Hodder before switching to romantic comedy and the name of Anna Cheska. Ten novels later, I would like to say that life is less chaotic, but unfortunately it’s not, so perhaps I need chaos in order to survive. My writing has evolved, my children have grown up and I am now busier than ever with community work, writing workshops, literary events and my own writing appraisal service. I’d like to thank all those people who have written to me about workshops they have attended, books they’ve enjoyed reading and those who have found the appraisals helpful and constructive. I have enjoyed working with you and am delighted when you let me know of your successes. My advice to all new and unpublished writers (I hate the term budding authors) is never to give up. I know it’s been said lots of times before, but writing is about hard work and determination. In the end though... it's worth it. |
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