About me   Q: So who are you then? I'm a writer. Fiction and non-fiction. An editor. A teacher. A facilitator. Fiction: I've written short fiction since 2002, working on getting sharper, working at finding my own style and voice. My stories are eclectic and wide-ranging, both in setting and subject. I lean towards the surreal and metafiction these days, and looking back the seeds of this were always evident. I try to let my characters tell their own stories without interfering too much. You'll find links to some of my web publications on this site, and information about my competition successes. You will also find plenty of my early work on the net if you Google my name. Some of it might make you laugh. Feel free; it makes me laugh too. Non-Fiction: I have many years experience as a freelance journalist, specialising in education issues in both the Independent and Maintained sectors. I've also published interviews with other writers, and book reviews, features on writing. Editing: I founded my own magazine for writing from marginalised adults, at www.tomsvoicemagazine.com. Teaching: I believe without question that we all have the seeds of creativity within us. Some life experiences serve to render the medium in which they might thrive infertile. My job is to find those seeds, and let them grow. Q: That's the writing stuff. What else? I'm a wife. A mother. I have been married to the same man for thirty years. We both deserve medals. We have two sons, and one lovely daughter-in-law. Q: Where do you write? In my study, on the computer. Or in the garden shed. Or on the notepad I keep by the bed. My best prize-winner so far was written in note form on the back page of a chequebook. Q: Who are your favourite authors? Jim Crace. WG Sebald. Dylan Thomas. E. Annie Proulx. Italo Calvino. Vladimir Nabokov. Philip Pulman. Roald Dahl. Lewis Carroll. Mervyn Peake. Raymond Carver. John Cheever. John Updike. John Fowles. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Want me to go on? Q: No. What, if anything, was the most formative thing you read? Everything I read informs me, I suppose. Q: What would you rather be doing at the moment? Watching the rugby. Q: Before you disappear to the rugby, anything else of relevance? Yes. I love the word "polymath". It means 'I own a camera'. To see some pics, go to my blog. All the pictures here are my own. And do drop me a line.