Nice CarolineIn September 2005, two weeks before I was due to start my PhD in Linguistics, I watched an interview on Richard & Judy where they referred to someone as a ‘nearly woman.’ I can’t remember who it was. Anyway, it was the moment when everything started to jigsaw into place. I identified with the label, it was me. I was a ‘nearly’ writer. I didn’t want to be someone who ‘nearly’ did things.

It was my ‘now or never’ moment.

I gave up my funding and my PhD place. I decided to speak my dream. A big risk. I want to spend the rest of my life writing. I don’t want to be someone who talks of ‘nearly’ having done something. I either will or I won’t. There is no in-between.

So, in September 2005, I enrolled on an MA in Creative Writing at MMU. This included weekly workshops, as well as the study of the craft of writing and I wrote In Search of Adam.

I finished In Search of Adam in August 2006, I launched my website and blog in that month. Three weeks later Clare Christian from The Friday Project stumbled on my blog. She requested my manuscript and then offered a publishing contract. In Search of Adam was published in June 2007.

In brief…

I was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1973.

I live on the Wirral.

I appear to make life changing decisions based on passing comments made by Richard & Judy.