Here I am, a ghost on Silverdale’s shores. I’ve spent so much time here in south Lakeland ~ in the physical and astral realms ~ contemplating the nature of reality with the characters in my novel. Should you visit this shining coastal village, I’m sure you’ll hear my spirit self singing on the breeze.

My novel, The Mobile Librarian, edges closer to its grand completion. I am busy adding layers and the work is consuming me whole during this intense period of shaping and revisions. Oh but I’m happily spending my days and nights with a mobile librarian, a healer, and a theoretical physicist on their fantastic journey from the ordinary into the extraordinary. There will be no rest now until the novel is finally surrendered for publication. And that, my friends, will be the start of another journey.

As we slip into the veils of autumn, I’m taking moments to bathe in the changing colours and light. Art, music, story, and poetry have been a constant inspiration, such as Goldfrapp; Bright Star; Skellig; Chagall.

I’ve also been busy stitching my imagined world into the Lakeland map. And I can tell you this: stretching the landscape’s fabric to make way for the villages in my novel, villages where extraordinary things are happening, is no easy feat.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering, what happens if you open this gate and step through?

I’ll be with you anon. For now, here’s wishing you all a magical season!

"Thoughts drift on bright seas filled with possibilities. My curious mind rarely rests when there are so many questions burning for answers."

Curiosity feeds the imagination and this is where my writing journey began.

Looking back, my insatiable interest in worlds beyond our own started in my first decade. I spent hours searching the stars, dreaming about other planets and considering the possibility of life beyond our solar system. I wrote to the astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore, and still cherish two letters I received from him.

My first taste of publication came at the age of ten when I had a letter published in a children’s magazine. I don’t recall the title of the magazine but I remember the letter’s subject matter. I’d written about the moon and my telescope.

During those early years, I also developed a curious fascination for the unexplained and life’s mysteries. I recall `playing’ with the Zener cards with one of my brothers to test psychic ability. We often achieved a remarkable score, which on reflection was perhaps not so remarkable to our then very impressionable and unblemished minds.

Life blossomed with strange and interesting moments. Even those around me were really quite magical. My Grandma Strange was known locally for her psychic abilities and I grew up inspired by a family friend who, I found out later, happened to be a white witch.

I guess it should be no surprise that I’m inspired to write fiction that is laced with magical elements. It seems the signs and influences were there from my childhood, marking out a path in a world exploding with possibilities.

In many ways, it is life’s extraordinary wonders, which drive my curiosity and keeps me asking, `what if?’ It’s an important question for a creative mind.

Writing is the medium for many of my reflections and, apart from aiming to offer lyrical escapism, it allows me to convey ideas or deeper meanings, which I hope will inspire or trigger my readers’ imaginations.

This is what I hope to achieve with my debut novel, The Mobile Librarian.

As I embark on the final few months of my MA Professional Writing, with University College Falmouth, I will be weaving the last strands into my novel, with the aim of surrendering it for submission by year end. I see closure on the horizon and just beyond is a new beginning.

Before I return to my writer’s nest, I’d like to thank you all for your wonderful messages and comments. I am humbled by your encouragement and kindness. I am currently pre-occupied with MA deliverables and projects so forgive me for my sporadic posting but I will catch up with you soon.

Until then, I wish you endless moments filled with magic and merriment.