Freelance writer near Derby

It was the winter of 1979. I was churning out story after story for my new primary school in Lancashire. The world was a vastly different place then. I remember watching the Doomsday Clock strike five to on New Year’s Day 1980, and feeling sick with terror.

When I returned to school after the Christmas break, I wrote an essay about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Doomsday Clock and the inevitability of nuclear war.

My teachers were astounded. I was only seven. When I attained the best exam results in the school’s history that summer, there was talk of a transfer to a school for the gifted. I was also a mathematical genius.

That summer, as the world watched the climax of the Coe/Ovett rivalry, I had an illness.

It’s surely no coincidence that my novel, Turtles on the Beach, begins at Christmas 1979. Or, that I tried to recreate the terror we were burdened with during the 1980s. Politics, heartbreak, murder, romance, my novel has it all. In fact, all my work is tinged with the bitter / sweet feeling I get when I think back to the summer of 1980.

I was always around the top of my class after my illness, but never again truly shone. I did excel at English though, stories and essays in particular. I won a prize for a Tolkienesque story I wrote when I was twelve.

However, my writing had a rival. I was also top of the chess ladder. After considering my options at the age of sixteen, I decided to utilise my logical brain. I soon found I had an aptitude for computers and so began a career in programming. At the very highest level.

In 2010, I decided to explore the possibility that I could write. After completing an open learning course, I was encouraged into further study by my tutor. I decided to study for a degree in Creative / Media Writing at the University of Derby. I attained a first class grade for every Creative Writing module I took, bar one in year two. In 2015 I was awarded first class honours.

Before commencing the final year of my degree, I was determined to finish my novel. I wrote the second ten chapters in just two months. Later, I was fed back that the second half is superior.

This was contrary to the teachings of my lecturers. They repeatedly stressed the need to redraft , with a substantial time lapse between versions. They also told me that authors often try for years to get their work published. I was therefore not expecting to receive two offers from the three publishers I submitted to.

So, six years after commencing my journey, I have concluded that yes, I can write.