Greetings From London

I thought my first post here should be an introduction.

My name is Sara, and I am a British writer of horror and crime and a combination of the two.

A popular question, to writers posed by non-writers, is "when did you become a writer?" For me it's hard to answer because I've never not been a writer. Even before I knew how to write, I was making up stories. I was always very fond of dolls and soft toys (I still am, if the truth be told). To me, they were characters. All of my toys in childhood had names and personalities and family histories. In childhood I wrote adventure stories, sometimes about my dolls, sometimes about myself and my friends - something akin to "The Famous Five" in most cases.

WWhen I was young, if ever a grown-up asked me what I wanted to be when I left school, I would reply, "a writer". The grown-up would then say, "you can't make a living doing that. You'll have to do something else." But there was never anything else I wanted to do.

It turned out the grown-ups were right, though, and I have not yet managed to make a living writing. When I left school I looked around vaguely for some way of earning a living. Somehow I came to a profession as a secretary, something I never imagined doing but it seems to suit me. My anally retentive personality makes me a meticulous organiser, and my writing has turned me into a fast, accurate typist who's a stickler for complete sentences and correct grammar. All of which are useful skills for a secretary. Thus I hold down a day job, and try to fit the writing around it, at least for the time being.

My first published novel, SUFFER THE CHILDREN, was released as an e-book by Lyrical Press in April of this year. So I achieved, at age 40, a dream that first took root in my brain 30 years ago.

A second novel, DEATH SCENE, has also been accepted by Lyrical Press and will hopefully be published next year. DEATH SCENE is the first of a planned series about amateur sleuth Shara Summers, and something of a departure from SUFFER THE CHILDREN which is a supernatural horror story.

I shall be hanging out here on Wednesdays, talking about writing and publishing and other such things, so do drop in again soon.