I’m Deborah and I’ve always liked reading stories and writing.

 

My mum was a big library book reader, ploughing through Regency romances and murder mysteries. Sometimes she went to a writers’ group.  She never showed us any of her writing but I think it put the idea in my head that writing was a perfectly reasonable thing to have a go at.

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When I was about 18, I started writing Mills & Boon stories, and I had another go at it in my 40s.  It is a guilty pleasure.  I also like writing psychological suspense.  I even won a prize for a chapter of a psychological suspense novel, a Northern Writers Award, but I still couldn’t get an agent interested in the finished book.

 

I’ve got an idea for a new novel set on Anglesey but I haven’t really thought it through yet.  I’ve never developed a good writing habit, which they say is essential if you’re going to get on with it.  In the past, I’ve found it helps to be in a small writers’ group.  You can get feedback and encouragement, be inspired by what other people are writing, set yourself targets and be held to account.

 

What matters most to me is just the fact of being in the group – the idea of writing can’t completely drift away and get forgotten.  Every week I get reminded that I’m supposed to be A Writer. It would be lovely to meet up and be in a club with others who are writing - short stories, life writing, local history, poems, novels - whether it's a serious ambition to write for publication or just for a bit of fun or to try something new!