“Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.” Pema Chödrön

I’ve spent much of my life in hiding – fearful of people’s reactions. Running away.

My intention was to conceal my sexuality but doing so had far wider repercussions. I don’t feel any less afraid now as I write this, but equally my life experiences have gradually offered me the courage to speak – mainly through my novels and poetry.

The overall aim of my novels is to challenge bigotry, discrimination and oppression in relation to gender and sexuality. I hope that the ideas that underlie my fiction will influence societal attitudes and provide support to the LGBTQI+ community to which I belong.

The novel I’m currently writing (working title Treasured Status) is sounding a warning toll. It is inspired by my belief that the right-wing attitudes held by many within Rishi Sunak’s Government in the United Kingdom are undoing the progress of the last two decades and returning LGBTQI+ people to the worst of times – back to being perceived as abhorrent.

I also address ethical issues in my writing. My forthcoming Gothic novel – Hallowed Child – set in the Yorkshire Dales, explores how a closely guarded secret reverberates through the generations of an extended family. It examines the power of family loyalty, even within one riddled with cruelty and deceit. Whilst the concealed act destroys lives, the story poses the ethical question of whether society should view such a deed as a crime.

This is my pre-publication synopsis of Hallowed Child:

When Charlotte is sent by Minnie, her grandmother, on a puzzling errand to a haunted farm, she encounters an unnerving couple and becomes obsessed with the unexplained death of their young daughter. Charlotte’s probing causes her to become entangled in Minnie’s rift with the family. Can she protect herself and Minnie from the consequences of her grandmother’s disturbing past?

In my 2017 novella, Tragedy at Bawley Bay, I drew from the Gothic genre to show how lesbian women were ignored, marginalised and their existence and relationships denied in nineteenth-century Britain.  I wanted to recover our history as well as highlight the restrictions and inequality of women’s lives more generally.

The process of writing helps me with my psychological wellbeing. It supports me in coming to terms with past trauma – such as being bullied or witnessing my mum’s suffering and death from Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s a way of keeping mentally active and interested in the world. For me, it’s also a socially acceptable way of getting sufficient solitary time.

It is important though, as a writer, to avoid becoming isolated. Being a member of the supportive community at The Writing Coach, founded by Jacqui Lofthouse, provides me with a sense of belonging. I gain encouragement to keep writing, as well as contact with other writers to share experiences, tuition on the craft of writing, publishing and marketing, and protected creative and reading sessions.

I write because I enjoy it. Because I love literature and reading. Because I love finding peaceful places to think and write.

Writing is an internal compulsion that I cannot ignore – it is my calling, and I am no longer prepared to run away.