1. I am severely deaf and partially sighted due to long-term conditions. This has made me aware of the need for better accessibility and has, I hope, made me an inclusive writer. I now have a bone implanted hearing aid which has changed my life. I still say inappropriate things sometimes, but that used to happen before I was deaf, so most people don’t notice.
Deborah Jenkins, Braver
2. I’ve been wanting to publish a ‘chapter book’ since I was eight, so it’s taken many years and a lot of paper. But I’ve done lovely things in-between – worked in teaching, had children, lived abroad, and taken up other writing opportunities.
3. My faith is my mainstay, but this doesn’t mean I have a black and white view of things. I have such a toilet-roll list of questions for God that when I get to heaven, the person behind me in the queue might have a tantrum. But I think God likes our questions. It shows we care.
4. Teacher Me is very sensible but Writer Me can be dippy. I often have what my family call ‘episodes’, like the time I was planning a plot twist while getting petrol. The pump stopped working so I got in the car and drove forward to the next pump. The queue to pay was long and when I said that I owed £7.50 from Pump 2 and £30 from Pump 3, fourteen pairs of eyes turned and bore into me like gimlets. I try to leave Writer Me at home now.
5. I was an awkward child with poor social skills, finding refuge in books. But I look back now with great affection on those days curled up with Peter Pan and What Katy Did. They taught me that living in other worlds can help us cope with this one.
6. My mum is one of my inspirations. A writer herself, as well as an army wife with three children, she had a dogged determination to achieve her goals despite setbacks. She has been a fantastic role model to me.
7. I don’t seem to write like other people. I work in the morning and edit what I last wrote until it’s as good as possible. Only then can I move on. But I’m a ‘pantser’ in terms of the plot. I always know how it will end but never know how I’ll get there. I think we must feel free to find a writing model that suits our personalities. So that probably makes me a sort of uptight drifter. Oh well…
