Enchanted

When I was about three years old, my parents bought me a pink typewriter as a birthday present; one of my earliest memories is sitting in front of it, banging away at the keys and copying out my favourite story books for hours on end. I guess you could say that I first fell in love with writing by performing the actual act of writing itself. Through school, as most teenagers do, I kept numerous diaries and journals; I wrote about my crushes, my angst, my friends, my family; I wrote poems and stories and stuck in pictures and drawings: without really realising it, I was writing my own 'books' before I even appreciated how important creative writing would become to me later in life.

If I spent a lot of time writing during my younger years, I must have spent double that with my nose in a book! Books were my solace as a child and a teenager, and even now as a wife and a mother of two. Whatever the stresses and strains, and joys or pains of everyday life may be, the answers and the questions can be found on the pages of my oldest, most dog-eared and well loved books. When you open a book and lose yourself in the world created by those neat rows of printed words; and the feel of the soft, yellowing pages; and that distinctive musty scent of the aging paper, you become as much a part of that world as the characters that walk within it. It becomes as real to you as the street in which you live; and it's inhabitants as tangible as the old lady who lives next door and shouts a friendly 'good morning' over the garden fence each day. So alongside the art of writing itself, it is certainly the art of reading that has inspired me to create my own imaginary worlds more than anything else.

As I've grown up I've experienced many things that have inspired me to write; even the way the leaves of a tree in my garden catch the glints of the late afternoon sun, or the pearlescent greyness of the sky before the onset of a summer storm can spark off, initially, the urge to pick up a pen and fill the blank, inviting whiteness of a fresh page just for the sake of it. Then more often than not, the actual seed of an idea for a story or a poem begins to form. Unfortunately, as I�m sure many others on here may agree, time more than anything else can often inhibit these creative urges; and for the last few years for me this has certainly been the case.

As well as taking care of my two daughters and my husband and our home, I�m currently approaching the end of the second year of my three year English Literature degree. I still often find myself during lectures being immensely surprised to find myself there at all! I didn�t do particularly well at school, and I never dreamed I�d have the tenacity and determination to take on such a daunting challenge in returning to higher education. But being at university has boosted my confidence and expanded my understanding beyond what I could ever have envisaged. It has also, without out a doubt reignited my passion for writing. I enjoy writing prose moreso than poetry, although I do write both. My particular passions are erotic fiction and children's fiction (now there's a dichotomy if ever there was one! lol), I think because the latter always evokes those warm memories of childhood, whilst the former inspires my more adult indulgences. I try to experiment with many genres though, and whilst I don't have that much material to add yet, I am looking forward to writing as much as my limited time permits.

Up until now I have always been reluctant to share my writing with others; and I've always felt in some way that it wouldn�t be good enough. I have now, finally, reached the stage where I have realised that though I may not be the next Sylvia Plath or Jane Austin - or even close - writing is something that I love, and if I want to improve it then I need to be brave and allow others to read my work and suggest ways in which my efforts can be bettered. I am also lucky enough to have an incredibly talented artist as a husband, who is also just getting into photography and spending more time with his pencils again, and I hope to illustrate a few of my bits and pieces with some of his work too.

So, I think that�s probably more than enough waffling from me; all that remains to be said is that I�m really looking forward to making new like-minded friends on here and sharing suggestions and comments with anyone who loves reading and writing as much as I do.

Thanks for reading,
Hannah.