GracieScribes

My love of books has been with me from an early age. A teacher in my primary school once commented that I would "take any book off a shelf and read it." It never mattered what that book was, I just loved to read.

I'd always harboured ambitions to be an actress, but my school bullies put paid to those dreams; as the daily torment forced me to drop out of drama class. Needless to say, my school grades suffered and I left with two qualifications in English and Spanish. Enough to go to college if I wanted but I would have had to do another year of GCSE's before thinking about trying for A-levels. I couldn't face the prospect of having to go to college with the same people who'd made my life hell for most of my childhood.

I started writing on and off from a young age but lacked the discipline and tenacity to finish a story. I didn't know about planning a book, character development, protagonists, antagonists, show not tell etc. I never gave any consideration to researching the art of writing itself. I assumed it came as naturally as breathing.

In 2005 I relocated to London where I had a good ten years in the capital and some of the best times of my life.

All good things come to an end though.

As much as I had loved living in London, the pace of life and cost of living had taken its toll. Some years later and feeling disillusionment set in, my new job afforded me the opportunity to relocate offices. So it was, that I packed up and moved, lock, stock and barrel to the beautiful county of Lincolnshire.

In 2012, the story that has lived in my head for more than two decades began to nudge at me and I decided, it was time. If I was going to pursue writing as a viable career, I needed to knuckle down and do it properly. I researched, read lots of articles, subscribed to writing magazines and read more books than ever before. I set up a blog using it to not only rant and rave every so often but to exercise my writing muscle in the form of short stories.