Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a storyteller through my pictures and audio.
Which I have been lucky enough to do. Today is national writing day and today I'm talking to Viv Walker
a talented author who lives locally in Worcestershire. She is constantly inspired by her environment.
She writes both for adults and children, although as she says adult books make it seem as if we're talking about
fifty shades of grey, which they're not!
Here is a little bit about Viv in her own words.
I live at the edge of a nature reserve in Worcestershire, UK, with my husband and three rescued cats.
I grew up in the back streets of Birmingham, UK. There were no books in our house, we couldn’t afford them, but I was a voracious reader and went to the local library with my grandfather every Monday evening. Once I found an author I liked, I would work my way through everything they had ever written, before moving on to a new one.
I wrote my first novels in my late twenties; they were pretty awful and most of them were collecting cobwebs in the loft until recently. Over the years since then I have dabbled with writing on and off (mainly creating film or TV screenplays, which were also pretty awful!)
I believe that for many years writing was my escape from the stress of the real world; a relaxing hobby, but that was all, and I was never brave enough to show my work to anyone.
I came up with Jessie and the Shimmering Withywicks after my first grandchild was born. It took me over two years to write the first draft (I was working full-time and only had free time on Sunday afternoons) but I was thrilled when it was finished, so I self-published it.
After that, I decided to take my writing seriously; I completed a six-week, Writer's and Artists' 'Writing Fiction for Children and Young Adults' course with Bloomsbury Publishing. I followed that by working my way through more writing and self-publishing training courses. My 'Tomtee Tales - Book 1' has been revamped, rewritten, tweaked, professionally edited - thank you Jo! - and, I believe, improved, many times over since the original. I am now not just pleased with it, but actually proud of it, at last.
'Tomtee Tales - Book 2' - Jessie and the Purple Parasols, is out now and I have lots of ideas for book 3, so, as they say, watch this space!
I have also written The Tomtee Tales – ORIGINS. This prequel to Jessie and the Shimmering Withywicks tells the story of how, and why, the Tomtees separated from humans and went into hiding. It is only available via this website – see the ‘Tomtee Tales Tab’ for details of how to sign up to get a copy!
For the grown-ups, my first novel was called Just Too Late, (a romantic sci-fi fantasy) which I've recently revamped. I've also completed my second one, The Samsara Spiral, (a WW1 related paranormal sci-fi/romance). Both are available on Amazon now.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BZ8XVPP1/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jessie-Purple-Parasols-Viv-Walker-ebook/dp/B0C3D2XZ3S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MB494KINC4IO&keywords=jessie+and+the+purple+parasols&qid=1683560837&sprefix=jessie+and+th+epurple+parasols%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1&author-follow=B013BXULVU
