Thankyou for visiting my website.
You might know me already, in which case Hello!
Here I am a few years on since the original As you can see I’m older now but not much wiser.
If you have stumbled across me by accident, you might want to know a bit about me, my background and my writing. OK here goes. I have published three novels and produced a children’s book called Flash the Tiny Teenage Tortoise, a fundraiser for homeless people. And now I’m starting a collection of short stories, many of which will be based around the characters in my novels. But for now I’m keen to share my experiences with you and to share my books, of course.
I grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland, along with my eight siblings, all different and although I could write a book about each of them, most of it is probably best left untold.
My first foray into freedom, after surviving the strict convent school expectation of vocation, was to nursing.
A student nurse in Belfast at the height of what is now called ‘The Troubles’, I led an exciting and sometimes dangerous, but never dull, life. I made lifelong friends during those years and some experiences of those years are scattered within in my novel, ‘Time for a Change’, which was published in May 2018.
I worked as a General Nurse and a Midwife in Belfast, then as a Health Visitor in Derry/Londonderry during the hunger-strike years. By the early eighties, I had scarpered off to Jersey, in the Channel Isles, in search of a calmer pace of life.
My career took me to unexpected places, and I published extensively in academic and nursing research (Clinical Effectiveness and guidelines). Now I’m learning the difference between fact, speculation and pure fiction!
I have also travelled the world and learned from other cultures and peoples – rich pickings for an aspiring writer.
Writing my first novel ‘Long Road, Many Turnings’ turned four years of private thoughts, storylines and research, mostly developed in a darkened room, into a public document. It is akin to walking down the street naked, in a street where all your friends and family will see you! But like a genie with her clothes off, once out there’s no going back in.
That first book soon grew into a life of its own and the characters seem to have won the hearts of many readers. I was so often asked ‘ Where did Bailey go’ or ‘What was Agnes up to?’ that I simply had to write the sequel ‘Time for a Change’. I hope you like it.
Click the covers to find out more about these books
You can also buy these books direct from me at a special ‘friends’ rate, signed if you like.
Then in 2020 I won second prize in the prestigious Fish Publishing Competition, for Flash Fiction (300 words). You can read it in the short stories page.Its called Blink, but you can also read it in the 2020 Fish Anthology, out now!
Another Mother’s Child
This is the third novel in my trilogy, although it might well have come first, but I hope you enjoy it for what it is and relax into the lives of the characters, set both in 1900 Ireland/America and 2022 Bristol/Belfast.
Thank you for staying with me until the end of this page, I hope this encourages you to read more about my books on the next pages. Or to write your own?