And so it begins...

“When I grow up I want to be an Arthur,” I would announce proudly to anyone who was willing to listen. I could never quite get the word author right - hence it was always Arthur.

All of my free time was spent penning short stories and poems (yes, I was a strange child), and at the age of about 6 I had already written my very first masterpiece The Hound, The Wife & Vince. A great tale of murder, deceit and suspense, painstakingly typed on my Petite Typewriter –which my parents probably lit the fire with (the story, not the typewriter). Okay, so talcum powder probably wasn’t the best prop for my heroine to feign death with – but my parents needn’t have laughed so blatantly. Besides, the dog always seemed to enjoy listening to my stories...

Stubborn and undeterred I ventured on – my need to write like an itch that always needed scratching. And not surprisingly, I now have an overwhelming desire to write a novel. In fact I’ve already written an extremely rough first draft, which I consider to be a very exciting prospect (and I swear it’s of a much better quality than my earlier scribblings) – I’m pretty sure my parents would vouch for that.

So, with the support and understanding of my husband Derek, I am now taking a year out from full time employment to edit, re-write, polish and beat my novel to within an inch of its life to make it of a publishable standard. And, as a first time blogger, I aim to document the whole hair-pulling, nail-biting, head-thumping, brain-busting, wine-drinking journey to the very end.

Welcome onboard!