I've been writing fiction on and off since I was a child. I don't know why the idea of writing books so appealed to me, but I still remember that moment of revelation when I first discovered that books didn't appear in the world by magic, but that someone had written them. I suppose I was 6 or 7 at the time, but from there it seemed like only a short step from realising that if "someone" could write them, then so could I.
The first things I actually remember writing were done when I was about 12. By the age of 14 I had become serious and asked my parents for a typewriter for Christmas. Also around this time, I read The Lord of the Rings, which inspired me to abandon the thriller-like things I had been writing and start writing fantasy.
I have written on and off ever since. Writing has been put on hold for all sorts of reasons, such as pressure of work, giving birth to and raising two children and doing a degree with the Open University. But I have always come back to it and writing seems to be something I just have to do, otherwise the story ideas and characters start clogging up my brain and I have to promise to write them in order to get some peace inside my own head. (I've found the stories will form an orderly queue if they think that at some point it will be their turn to see the light of day.)
Below I've set out my modest list of professional sales to date.
