About Me

Background

I have always wanted to write. At school my favourite subject was English, and Creative Writing in particular. However, when I dared to start making noises about pursuing a career as a writer, I was quickly and decisively dissuaded from pursuing this dream, and guided towards a more sensible career.

And so … I ended up in healthcare. (You can’t get more sensible than that.)

Initially, I trained and worked as a nurse and, subsequently, as a Public Health Specialist both in a university department and a health authority. Much later, fuelled by divorce-related financial concerns, I moved to the pharmaceutical industry. It was from here, in 2018, that I finally left the world of full-time, sensible, well-paid employment and decided to try and make a go of it. Better late than never …

Writing

Don’t get me wrong, I never stopped writing. As a student nurse I had a case study published in the Nursing Times. When I worked in academic public health, I published the results of my research, both as a University of Birmingham report, and as an article in Thorax, the Journal of the British Thoracic Society.

During my pharmaceutical career, I wrote a wide and extensive range of reports, project proposals, funding applications and training courses amongst other things.

The dream first began to materialise in 2015 when, during a career break, I met some fellow aspiring writers at different stages of their careers. Together, we formed a small local writers group. I began to write fiction in earnest and started the Writers Bureau Comprehensive Creative Writing Course, which I completed in 2018.

I recently published Trident Edge, the sequel to my first novel, Wait for Me and I have also co-authored a biography called My Rachel.

Moving on …

At the end of 2018, the opportunity to write full-time presented itself to me, and I grabbed it with both hands. I plan to continue to pursue my creative writing aspirations, but to support myself financially through content and copy writing. I completed the Writers Bureau Copywriting Course in March 2019.

I love writing; I love putting words together to form sentences, paragraphs, chapters and ultimately stories, be they creative fiction, business proposals, websites, grant applications or anything else. I love the feeling when I find just the right words and get them into just the right order to give just the right meaning and evoke just the right response in the reader.

Currently, as well as my writing, I keep the wolf from the door by doing a bit of Associate Coaching work. You can read more about my career history and experience on Linked In.