The Importance of Being Emma

It all sounds rather arrogant, writing an 'about me' section...As I type, I'm aware that I'm cringing internally a little. If you could perhaps imagine that we're sat in the pub, with a glass of something tasty to hand, and a warm fire at our knees, this would all be much easier. 

My interest in writing started in a fairly average way, I suppose, at school. A group of my friends and I loved writing, and adored The Lord of the Rings, and so became jointly responsible for some rather reprehensibly Mary Sue fanfiction. This led to an interest in English literature, creative writing, and lots of wider reading (aided by our excellent English teachers of course). In my case, this also led to a focus on stories that in any way seemed impossible in reality. Fairytales, (Gothic) Horror, Historical fantasy- if it hadn't or wouldn't be likely to happen, I was into it. As my friends might say, I can be a contrary sort of person...

Children's author Darren Shan, with his 'Saga of Darren Shan' encouraged this through his early, self-managed website, and my long suffering mother consented to take me to his reading at the Edinburgh Book Festival. This, along with Buffy, Charmed, and (a little later) Anne Rice, encouraged my interest in Vampires as an 'ultimate' villain. Believe it or not, this actually led to my writing a thesis on Paranormal Romance (heavily featuring Vampires) while at University. 

However, after University, and the days of regular writing of essays, reports, and yes, the occasional fanfic, I got a job, and this seemed sadly to not involve much 'creative' writing. In fact, none. I had not realised how much I liked to write until this point, and had to refrain from doodling words in contract margins.

So passed the 'Dark Years' of writing in notebooks, fragmented poems, stories and numerous outlines that were never developed.

Then, one day, blogging.

I had some experience of social media via Facebook and Twitter, and a very old MySpace account, and so one day I thought 'how hard can it be'?

As you may note from the rather sporadic posting- it can be quite hard! However I enjoy writing every post, and the feedback and/or comments that I receive are absolute treasure. So thank you for stopping by, and please do leave a hello or comment if you have time :)

Cheers!