Lucy - Iza MacLeod

Born in Coventry, Lucy moved to Weston-Under-Wetherley when she was four, attending a local village school.  Her first teacher at infant school said she had a talent for telling stories.  She grew up in Warwickshire and attended a secondary school in Leamington Spa.

 

In 2005 she decided to go to Argentina to learn Spanish.  She spent three years in Argentina and studied Spanish at the University of Buenos Aires.  She always wanted to write a fictional novel about her experiences, but like many writers, found it difficult to find the time.  In 2011, due to exceptional circumstances, she had the opportunity to write her first fictional romance, Buenos Dias Lucy London.  It was then that she realised how much she loves writing, and it has since become her hobby.  Buenos Dias Lucy London was published a couple of months ago on Amazon.  link Buenos Dias Lucy London.

 

Lucy moved to the south of France in 2013 with her husband and is currently writing her second novel, London Raindrops (a rather sad story and a sequel to Buenos Dias Lucy London), alongside teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages at an international school. 
 
''I find it difficult to find enough time to write'', Lucy says.  ''I have more ideas for two other books after Raindrops, and it would be a dream to be able to earn as much money writing as I do teaching.  It's been great to be able to join this writing group and meet other writers to share ideas and experiences of writing with.''

''I write using the pen name Iza MacLeod.  Y Link - You can see me on Facebook.''

 

Julia

Julia Sokota is originally from Cornwall. Her varied working life includes teaching in comprehensive schools in Coventry, and training teachers in Africa. Now, semi-retired, she teaches at the University of Birmingham. She is married with two daughters and has lived in Leamington Spa for over forty years.

 

Her book The Returning Tide was published in August 2014.

See post about the book on the news page on 26 8 2014.

 

 

Ian

 

Born in Edinburgh, the second son of a Scottish soldier, Ian Mathie's contact with Africa began whilst still a baby, hearing the lions roar in nearby Corstorphine zoo during the early evening quiet before bedtime. Although the sound meant nothing at the time it was the foundation of a lifelong fascination with the dark continent which started in 1951.

Leaving his elder brother behind at school in Scotland, the family moved to Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia where his father was posted to serve with the Northern Rhodesia Regiment.

From the scrub beyond the barracks to the wilds of the Kafue Game Reserve, where the sound of roaring lions was instantly recognised, the African bush became his playground. Its peoples were a source of infinite fascination. His playmates were the sons and daughters of his father's askaris and children from nearby villages. Together they attended the same mission school a few miles outside the town. They all played African games and Ian grew to appreciate and understand Africa from within. The family made many excursions into the bush including one memorable visit to Shiwa N'gandu, the exotic home of Stewart 'Chipembele' Gore-Browne.

When the regiment was sent to Malaya to fight in the jungle, the family went too. Living in Penang, Ian attended a Chinese school in the mornings and spent afternoons playing Mah-Jongg with the Chinese women, hiding his winnings in a cracked teapot under the wall of the local Snake Temple for safe keeping.

On return from the Far East, Africa had to take something of a back seat for a few years as Ian was sent to a British boarding school, flying out to see his parents during the holidays. It was the era of independence and West Africa this time, with new languages, cultures and people for Ian to discover. But the bush was still a major attraction.

After school and a short service commission in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, defence cuts left Ian stuck on the ground with no prospect of further flying. He left the RAF and returned to Africa as a rural development officer, specialising in water resources and related projects which took him all over the continent. Later, he moved into the commercial field and spent two years running a high-tech irrigation company in the Middle East.

In 1982 he decided to change direction and returned to the UK to retrain. He spent the next twenty years as an industrial psychologist providing leading edge development programmes in the UK and Europe.

Ian now lives in south Warwickshire with his wife and dog.

Ian Mathie is a member of the Society of Authors and is listed on contactanauthor.co.uk. The African Memoir Series is published by Mosaique Press.

Pamela

 I’m the author of six new books in different genres, from contemporary thriller to epic fantasy.

I was born in Edinburgh, grew up in the North West, went to Manchester and Oxford, worked as a translator, then as a journalist in the UK and Australia, dabbled in publishing, online editing, copywriting … parenting. I now live in leafy Kenilworth.

My husband Rob Deeth is a professor of inorganic chemistry and my daughter Lauren is studying History of Art at Edinburgh.

My constant companions are my have two daft dogs, Chester and Lottie, who stop me from being glued to my PC.

I’ve been writing for years, but in October 2012, I decided to try e-publishing. Well, it seems to have worked:

TOMORROW'S ANECDOTE (Crooked Cat Publishing) - retro newsroom mystery

HALF LIFE (MuseItUp Publishing) - a ‘noir’ thriller set in the 1930s which I co-wrote with my husband Robert Deeth

DARK INTERLUDE (MuseItUp Publishing) - a post-World War I romantic drama with a whiff of revolution

ICE TREKKER (MuseItUp Publishing) - teen fantasy

THE CLOUD PEARL Book One: Legends of Liria (MuseItUp Publishing) - a fantasy series

THE LOST ORCHID (Bluewood Publishing, 4 April, 2014) - a Gothic-inspired historical adventure.

I recently edited a book by my late father, Peter A. W. Kelt. I'm proud to announce his original Cold War thriller, Not With a Whimper, will be released by Crooked Cat books in June of this year.

But when not writing, I dabble in orchids, gardening, cooking, art galleries, great science fiction on the telly and family holidays in Scotland with the dogs. Check out my other blogs: Orchidmania and A Quarter past Cocktail.

So that's me.

Pamela

http://pamelakelt.weebly.com

Chris

I entered the craft of story telling quite late in life and almost as an experiment.

Originally, I had wanted to do an evening course of some sort to stretch the mind but considered the academic year too much of a commitment but, low and behold I found a ten week course for creative writing and enrolled. A friend suggested I should write about my life. She thought it sounded so challenging but was always putting it across as another ludicrous episode that it had her in stitches.

My ten week course turned into several years and I managed to put together a novel length story in order to develop plot and characters. Nowadays I seem to concentrate on short stories and try to make them as comical as I can.

Chris

Margarita

One day when I was in Year 3 we were asked to write down what we wanted to be when we grew up. Without hesitating, I scribbled ‘writer’. Since then, I have always written, on and off, finding time when I can despite life rudely getting in the way.

 

I enjoy writing short stories – which I occasionally enter into competitions – and am working on a couple of longer pieces. I particularly like flash fiction and using a random word generator to set my topic.

 

A Surrey girl born and bred, I spent my whole life in London and the Home Counties except for a couple of brief sojourns to locations not-too-far-north for uni. I am a relative newbie to Leamington Spa, re-locating a few years ago for my husband’s job. I have grown to love the town, its gorgeous architecture, independent shops and café culture.

 

I am currently on maternity leave and spend most of my days trying to keep up with my 7 month old who is obsessed with crawling at high speed towards anything dangerous. I am also learning how to drive.

 

Margarita

 

Pauline

I was born and brought up in a small village in Wiltshire. I relocated to the Leamington area several years ago following the break-up of my first marriage. Since moving to the area I returned to study, graduating with a degree in Applied Social Science in the late nineteen nineties. I currently work as a mentor in a local residential college for students who are disabled.

My passion for reading and writing began in childhood and has stayed with me throughout my life. My father introduced to me the classics, which ignited my lust for literature and my first husband kept the flame burning with his love of the same.

While still at junior school I wrote several ‘novels’, they just about filled an exercise book, for which I won several prizes.

As a working mother of five children, all of whom have now grown up and left home, it has sometimes been difficult to find the time to continue writing, but I have always done so. I have completed three novels, two of which have been short listed for national prizes. 

 Over the years I have been a member of several writers groups, but recently it hasn’t been possible to find one that met at a time convenient for me. I was, therefore, delighted when five people responded to my request to begin a group of our own. 

I am also a member of a reading circle, which meets monthly.

Pauline