I live in East London with my husband and youngest son. He is nearly eighteen, and studying for A levels in maths and physics. Not subjects that I know anything about! I have an Open University degree in Social Science. Women's studies, and social history fascinated me as part of my degree course, and it was these that motivated me to begin writing my first novel, Poppy Days.
My eldest son is now happily settled with his partner, and has a beautiful baby daughter. I am a grand mother for the first time! I have lived in East London for nearly eighteen years now, but was born and raised in Islington, North London, which is where both Poppy Days and Angel Girls are set. I was a teenager during the 1970's and wrote about that era in Poppy Days.It was an exciting turbulent time to be alive and living in London.
I am passionate about writing, and my dogs. I work part time as a play worker at an after school club, and during the day I work on my latest novel. I am working on my third book, which hopefully will be released in early 2013.
I love people who have a good sense of humour, who are able to laugh at life's absurdities and shares my love of crisps and chocolate. Cake lovers are also always welcome at my house. Especially if the bring one with them! xxxxx
Technology Scares Me!
Thank you Nikki, I am very pleased to be here, and a tad scared. It's the technology, you see. I am a techno wimp. The writing is not a problem, it's the sending that worries me. I am from the old school, you see, the paper, pen and lick the stamp on the envelope school. There, I've admitted it. I have come out of the cupboard! or if you prefer, the closet.At last, I have aired my deep rooted fear. My friends on facebook must think me very rude at times, or assume I am ignoring them. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I do not have the technical skills to tag, tweet, re tweet, copy paste or do any other jiggery pokery that my friends all seem to have got to grips with. The times have moved on, and I am still stuck in the dark ages when "booting up" meant pulling on my platform soles for another night out down at the disco. I am a Luddite.Yes, technology scares me. Yet, in contradiction, I publish my work exclusively on Kindle. I love my kindle. Nothing quite beats the thrill of reading and smelling a good book, turning the pages and fondling the cover, but I'll say it again, I love my Kindle. There are stairs and there are escalators. Stephen Fry said that "e Books are no more a threat to books than escalators are to stairs" and that is exactly how I feel. I do however, have to admit that the technology involved in eBooks boggles my mind. Good thing they are straightforward to use, or Mine would still be in it's box!In my defence, I grew up in a household and a world where technology never really existed.I was a child of the 1960's. I always idly wondered how aeroplanes stayed air borne, and ships stayed afloat, but even when knowledgeable people tried to explain the laws of physics to me, I never really understood. I was nine years old before we had a telephone, for goodness sake, how was I meant to get to grips with mobile phones? And yet, my beloved sister is older than me, and she has remarkably grasped the mettle, so to speak, and copies and pastes and knows how to add links and send photo's and all sorts of other magical things that I don't even know how to describe. I can only gaze at her in awe, and nod stupidly as if I understand what she is talking about when she blithely says "It's easy, sis. Just press this button" My brother, even older than both myself and my sister, has a degree in applied mathematics, and writes computer programmes for a living. When he was at Uni, I remember him saying prophetically that "One day every home will have it's own computer and computers will run the world" oh, how our mum and dad laughed at that! He knew a thing or two, did my brother. Yet still this familiarity with technology passed me by.
I think my problem is that I tend to over complicate things. Computers are very clever things. I am not. Well, okay, not to sell myself short, I can write and I can also paint sculpt and draw a bit. I manage. I do wish I could master my lap top, though. I suppose I'm making progress. It took my sister about two years to get me to sign up for facebook, and look at me now! I won't give up. I'm sure one day I will get there. If only I really understood exactly where it is I want to get to...
To buy Poppy Days from Amazon.co.uk, click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007DZUVPY
To buy Angel Girls from Amazon.co.uk, click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008MMUUWG
Famous Five Plus: http://www.famousfiveplus.com/
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