In time-honoured tradition, here are a few snippets about my life, my writing life and me. A potted history, if you like.

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I was born in County Durham (UK) but oddly, I feel that I have never been there, as my family moved ‘down south’ when I was about six. I have vague memories of teasing because of my Geordie accent when I started primary school – the accent is long gone – I sound like a proper Southerner now.

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School was average and no, I cannot boast any early pretensions about wanting to be a writer. I have mild dyslexia. At school, the muddled words and inability to remember anything by rote marked me out as lazy, or stupid, and usually both.

I was good at art and began A levels but the stress of trying to tackle core subjects meant I dropped out fairly quickly and went into hairdressing.

Hairdressing and I got along fine. I travelled the world working on cruise liners, came home and opened my own salon.​

Somewhere in the above, I got married too young and divorced. I could go into detail, but how long do you want this post to be? ​

Anyway, I married again. This time I got it right. When pregnant with our first child, I sold the salon. I was not sure what to do next. In the throes of new motherhood, I decided I wanted to teach.​

The big thing that had happened was computers. My husband bought one and persuaded me to ‘have a go.’ As soon as I poked that mouse and played that keyboard, I just knew that here was my salvation. With the machine’s help, I could easily correct everything I battled with - illegible handwriting, misspelt words, lack of connectives. I taught myself to type with an online course and took a degree with the Open University followed by a PGCE. I became a primary teacher.​

Time has flown. Our two children have left the nest, and it is many years since I had ‘my own class.’ Supply Teaching proved to be the answer for me. Working for a large agency allowed me to choose my working hours, which gave me almost enough writing time. Then, finally, I decided to give my writing a chance, and I gave up teaching altogether.​

I began writing a ghastly ‘novel’ when I was working on those cruise liners. I cannot remember much about it, which is probably just as well. Something vaguely romantic scrawled into a notebook at first and then on one of those ‘brother’ typewriters that had a tiny screen showing the sentence in progress. The title was ‘Good People.’ No idea why. ​

 

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My big passion at the moment is my paranormal women’s fiction series - The Mid Witch. I have three books out so far and the first is now an audiobook. This story is about an older woman who discovers she is a witch just as she is battling the menopause, her empty nest, and a sticky divorce. It is full of comedy, magic and sex and is fun to write. I am thrilled that readers are enjoying it and that they are connecting with this mature heroine and my sense of humour.

 

​Also on this site, you will find my dark fantasy series, Crystal Bound. Which is a multi-character epic a bit like Game of Thrones.

I also write for children under the pen name Tiger Molly. So far, I have two illustrated chapter books out for ages 8-12 with another coming soon and a picture book. Check out Tiger Molly. There is a link above. ​

I am an artist, and all my book covers and illustrations are my own. I used to accept book cover design commissions, but these days I don’t have enough time. 

Speaking of time, I should mention the podcast – or more accurately, the podcast’s demise. The Words & Pictures Podcast has been out for just under two years. I have interviewed many lovely and fascinating authors and made some great connections all around the world. However, it is massively time-consuming and although I love the interview part, I soon found all the other jobs it takes to publish an episode are tedious and take too long. Each episode requires around seven hours to complete. Therefore, I have decided that I would rather spend that time on writing. There are so many stories I want to tell.​

Right, I think that’s everything. Get in touch if you would like me to speak at your event, book club or writing group via the contact page. Join my mailing list for updates on the next book and an insight into my writing life or follow me on social media. I’d love to hear from you!

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All the best,

Deborah Bowman-Smith