Introducing Kate Kingsley

Hi, and apologies for my belated arrival here!

Just a quick introduction for myself and my writing background:

For as long as I can remember, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. As a child I would read voraciously, and I made a few early forays into writing: I would take a book, any book, read a few pages and then rewrite them in a style which I found more to my taste. This early attempt at developing technique lead to a varied selection of adaptations, from Jeffrey Archer to Kafka by way of a chapter of an encyclopedia on wolves.

And then at some point it all stopped. I don't remember when or why. I continued to immerse myself in books, studying Literature at university and going so far as embarking upon a Masters in contemporary literature with a view to full time academic literary study and teaching. But the writing stopped. This was probably due to fear of failure, and I was extremely self-conscious about professing any authorly ambitions as I expected to receive a guffawing "You! A writer! Don't be so daft. Who do you think you are, anyway?" in response.

The idea never truly evaporated, and I sometimes wonder if denying my innate inclination to write may have contributed to the aimlessness of the years following university ~ when you dare not do the one thing you long to do, everything else seems a bit pointless. Eventually I realized that it was better to be laughed at then get to the age of 97 having never tried to live my dream. Around them same time, felicitously, I read a few awful books, and I just KNEW that I could do better. Some gentle encouragement from a poet friend and my fiancé, combined with an idea that buzzed in my head like an angry wasp and refused to go away until I wrote it, and here I am working my way through the first draft of my first novel, which is centred on a fictional rock band, The Deadbeats, in 1960's Newcastle. The draft is currently on hold, as real life got very much in the way over the last few months and, combined with a brick wall on the plotting front, the motivation waned somewhat. I am now in the initial stages (plotting, character drafts and an odd snippet of prose here and there) of a new idea which I am very very excited about, and I'm determined to plunge onwards and upwards with this one to prevent another wall-hitting incident.

I am currently writing under the (not quite real) name of Kate Kingsley, although I have had a few modest successes with short stories and poetry under my "other" name. I suppose I started the blog under a variant identity because that little germ of self-consciousness is still there, and I didn't really want any family friends stumbling upon it and demanding to see what I'd produced so far. Hopefully I shall soon be in a position to "reveal" myself, but I have to admit I am rather enjoying the super-hero type dual identity!

Kate

ps: loving the new home for the racers ~ now that I've finally popped me head round the door I'll be a bit more of a regular fixture.