Inspirational Blog Awards

I would like to thank Julie Phillips for this inspiring award.  What a lovely way to start the new year.

So now to follow the tradition I will give you seven facts as to why I started to write.


1. My mother is also a writer and she had a huge old typewriter when I was a child.  I wanted to learn to type so I started out by making up little stories and typing them out.

2. In my school holidays I worked through some exercises that Mom had for a journalism course.  I loved the challenge of each assignment and learning new techniques.

3. When I was 14, I was lucky to buy my beautiful horse Chad who is still with me today.  He inspired me to write about horses.  I passed my stable management course and loved jotting down factual things and stories about horses.  My first publication was in Horse and Pony magazine.  I had a letter published and this encouraged me to write more.

4. I also had a fascination about ghosts.  I loved writing ghost stories and completed a small handwritten book full of my own work.

5.In the early 1980's my Mom was getting regular articles published.  She was part of the very early Wrekin Writers and I got very interested in what she was doing.

6. In 1999 I joined Wrekin Writers.  I entered a poem in the members only competition and I got a commended .  This really inspired me and I have been a member ever since. Being part of the group has been so wonderful and I got encouragement from fellow members and bloggers.  I started writing articles and short stories and was published in several magazines and then I was introduced to the world of blogging which has been a great experience in writing something on a regular basis.

7. In March 2007 my book 'One Hundred Ways For A Chicken To Train Its Human' was published by Hodder and Stoughton.  I have to thank Simon Whaley - author of One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human' plus many other books.  He suggested that I try writing the chicken one which is what I did and I am thrilled to say it is still selling today.  This gave me confidence to try other things and now I have self published my first novel on Kindle.  

So there you have it.  I have loved writing from an early age and been inspired in many ways by many people and many animals.

 I shall now pass this award on to three more fellow bloggers who are all very different but very inspiring and entertaining.   Mermaids drown, Much Malarky Manor and klahanie.