About Me – A creative life

My first writing memory dates back to when I was around 8 years old and feverishly re-writing the Nancy Drew novel I’d just read.  Once I began writing, I didn’t stop.  I wrote stories, the beginnings of novels, journals.  Writing was a compulsion, something I felt I had to do.  That all changed ten years ago when my mother became terminally ill and for four years, I couldn’t write a word.  Nor could I read.  Words just left me.  So I began to paint, recapturing the love of drawing that also began when I was a child.  But when my mother died, I slowly began to write again.  Now I’m writing more than I’ve ever written before and I still paint, in acrylics.

In the past seven years, I’ve had some success in writing competitions, had short stories published in books and magazines and began to blog.  I’ve never felt more inspired creatively.  I’ve written two magical realism novels for adults: The Skin of a Selkie and The Wintering Place and am seeking an agent to represent me.

I find inspiration in nature, the coastline and the turn of the seasons.  For many years I have been a witch in the solitary tradition, sometimes moving away from that path but always returning to it and its focus on the sacredness of nature.  You’ll find writing about all of those things and creativity in general here.

I hope you enjoy reading my posts and I’d love to hear what you have to say about your own creative life.

Andrea Stephenson