Thank you to Guy Portman of http://guyportman.com/ for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I have been following Guy’s blog for some time and it is full of entertaining author–related information as well as interesting anecdotes about his travels.

Here are the rules relating to the award:

• Nominate 15 other bloggers relatively new to blogging (I’ve dispensed with the ‘new to blogging’ bit since I could only find a few of them)
• Let the bloggers know that you’ve nominated them
• Share 10 random facts about yourself
• Thank the blogger who nominated you
• Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post

Ten random facts about me

Since my blog is about things related to my writing I’ll start with some bookish facts:

1. The oldest book I own is ‘As you Like It’ by William Shakespeare. It is a 1941 version by the Oxford University Press marked with a school stamp. Don’t worry, I didn’t acquire it by nefarious means. My school were having a clear out and were giving old books away to the pupils.

2. My favourite book is ‘Guests of the Emperor’ by Janice Young Brooks. This is the story of a group of women and their fight for survival in a Japanese prison of war camp during World War Two. I also love ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy.

3. My first foray into commercial writing was when my junior school teacher asked the pupils to submit poems for a book that was being published. It was a collection of poetry by children from schools all over the area. I have a vivid memory of the last day of junior school. We were asked to rewrite the poems in our best handwriting. Everybody else had one or two poems for submission but the teacher had selected several of mine. While all the other children were celebrating the last day I was busy writing. Somehow it felt more like a punishment than a privilege and I never did find out whether any of my poems were published.

4. I’ve lived in Manchester all my life and I love it (despite the weather). I love everything about Manchester and consider myself lucky to have so much on my doorstep – great music, sport, culture, shopping, countryside etc. etc. etc. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather live. Despite all this we have our share of crime, like any other city, which is why I’ve chosen Manchester as a base for my novels. I hope this doesn’t mean that I am showing the city in a negative light because it doesn’t represent Manchester as a whole.

5. Prior to becoming a writer I used to work in credit control and I became a graduate Member of the Institute of Credit Management (MICM). Although I hated the job I finished studying for my professional qualification because I figured that all education is worthwhile. That has proved to be a wise decision because I’ve produced a lot of copy in the consumer finance niche over the years.

6. My favourite drink is cappuccino.

7. I enjoy the theatre but mostly go to local theatre rather than central Manchester. It’s a lot cheaper, easier to get to and we have a high standard of amateur theatre groups in our local area.

8. I used to enjoy knitting and crochet but haven’t done any for ages because of the need to wear varifocals for the last couple of years. I’m definitely not a fan of them and had a separate pair of glasses made up specifically for computer work.

9. As a child I loved reading so much that for a long time I refused to watch TV. I even told my school teacher that I didn’t like the television. While the rest of my family were watching TV I used to lie on the carpet with my head underneath my dad’s legs as he used to rest his feet on a stool. The gap underneath his legs used to obscure the TV screen and drown out part of the sound so that I could concentrate on my books.

10 The other place I love is Spain. I can talk the language a little although not as well as I used to. I spend holidays in a town that is occupied mainly by British ex-patriates so I don’t get sufficient opportunities to practice my Spanish.

That’s enough about me. I would like to nominate:

Marilyn Chapman

Joanne Phillips

Georgia Rose

Crime Writer’s Blog (Sue Coletta)

The Lavender Field (Kim Smith)

Katherine’s Bookcase

Geoffrey West

Annethology (Anne Goodwin)

Writer Babble (David Delaney)

Martina Munzittu

Pauline Wiles

Clare Davidson

Best Dad I Can Be (Mark Richards)

E L Lindley

Linda Huber

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