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

​

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.

​

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. 

​

These days I call myself a ‘multi-author’ because I write many things.

​

My big passion at the moment is my paranormal women’s fiction series - The Mid Witch. I have two 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 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 writng. There are so many stories I want to tell.​

Right, I think that’s everything. Get in touch. I’d love to hear from you! Find me on social media or use the contacts page.​

All the best,

DJ