Well, it was because it gradually dawned on me that I always read the personal bits of any page I visit. So perhaps other people would be interested in me too.

So, in brief...

Height: 5'4"
Hair: brown
Eyes: greenish hazel
Weight: never you mind!
Favourite colour: green
Star sign: Gem--
No, this is getting silly. On with the life story...

I was born and grew up in Manchester, but I now live in a very small town in Gwynedd, Wales. I moved from one to the other over a period of some 10 years via Aberystwyth, Bury (Lancs), London, Silloth (Cumbria), Norwich, Crickhowell (Powys) and finally to North Wales, where I've lived for 22 years. On the way I acquired a husband and two children, (or, as they're now more or less grown up, perhaps I'd better say offspring). A number of animals also passed through my life, ranging from hamsters to cats, chickens, goats and horses. For several years I had no pets at all, but I recently acquired two pet rats, Florence and Rosie who are really cute and becoming tamer each day. (There will probably be pictures posted on here before too long...)

If you really want to know about my entire work history, you can read my CV. However, very briefly, the recent stuff...

After we married, Graham and I were wardens of three YHA Youth Hostels. We started out in Norwich, then moved to South Wales in Crickhowell. Finally ending up in Kings near Dolgellau. It may be significant, but only Kings is still a Youth Hostel. The other two buildings are respectively a language school and posh apartments, probably for commuters to Cardiff. For a humorous look at the life of a warden, click here to spend a night in the Hostel of Doom.

We survived in this job for 10 years, but eventually, it all began to get too much! As we did not want to leave the area but couldn't find any suitable jobs available locally, Graham, and I created out own jobs. In 1984 we founded a small educational software company producing software for the dear old BBC Model B computer. (Well, Graham wrote it, I tested it, wrote the teachers' notes, did the customer support, and also did all the marketing.) Our customers were schools, but as the years passed, they seemed to have less and less money to spend. So, in the early 90s, I began collecting qualifications and re-trained as a teacher of adults.

As I did my degree with the Open University, I am now thrilled to be working for them as a part-time tutor. I have been appointed as a tutor counsellor, tutoring the course T171 You, Your Computer and the Net. This new course aims to introduce students to computers and the Internet, to enable them to become competent in the use of ICT, to give them direct experience of using computer conferencing and e-mail for study and collaboration with other learners and to prepare them for higher level study in the Open University or elsewhere.

The OU post is part-time. My main job, which I have been doing since 1993, is teaching IT to adults. I currently work for a tertiary college in North Wales. I teach unemployed adults how to use computers, which is challenging, frustrating, usually rewarding, but certainly never dull. Many of the trainees on the course, who range in age from mid-twenties to fifty five, have no previous experience of using computers. It's my job to see that after a mere few weeks, they are happy and competent users of IT.

One of the options for the NVQ Level 2 involves learning to use e-mail and the Internet; and, although it is not strictly part of the course, some trainees even go on to produce web pages, either for themselves or for others. One example is the information about the Gellilydan Catholic Church, produced by Philip Bolger. Another is the small (at time of writing :-)) page by and about Marryat Wright, an experienced IT trainer and NVQ assessor who was recently made redundant and is thus currently looking for a job. I met Marryat during the summer when he acted as my assistant in the training centre whilst working towards his TDLB assessor D32 and D33 assessor awards. He is incredibly useful and I can highly recommend him to anyone looking for an IT trainer. I believe he can also set up databases for people, should you require that sort of thing.

Working full time while studying for a degree with the Open University did not leave me much time for hobbies and interests. Now the degree is completed, I intend to catch up on a lot of reading that will be just for fun (mainly SF) instead of serious stuff. Since Babylon 5 finished, I watch very little TV, preferring to spend my time writing. Recently I sold a story to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy magazine which you can now also read here. I have several more short stories in progress (one even features piots). I'm also wrestling with a couple of novels. Legacies of War is now finished and I'm in the process of submitting the manuscript to publishers. It's a fantasy whodunit in which magic is an integral part of both the murders and the investigation. It also has political intrigue and a touch of romance. I'm about to start another in the series, which is the story of the war in Baradel and its aftermath. There will be at least two more Baradel novel. Each one is designed to stand alone, but they have characters and events in common.

And that's all I've got to say about myself, so now...