Allow me to Introduce myself….

My keyboard and I are tight, we have become the best of friends. It’s currently 21:41pm, the house is quiet, my son is fast asleep and I reach for comfort in my lap. For some that would imply their fluffy cat, a consoling partner, or a bag of Dorito’s. But for me, I find comfort in my keyboard. Knowing that these little black letters hold the key to my writing career.

As a freelance writer and aspiring author, it’s any wonder why I haven’t jumped at the chance to start a blog before. I mean it goes with the territory right? I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a blogging superstar and countless times my friends have urged me to start one, but my response has always been, “who even reads blogs these days? And why would anyone be interested in mine?”

Well, according to Worldometers there are over 42,000,000 blogs on WordPress alone, and with approximately 329 million people viewing blogs per day, surely one of you might relate to mine, please God!

The opportunities are endless it seems, with breakthroughs like Huffington Post making way in 2012. Social media has since proven to be somewhat of a marketing Mecca for bloggers, streaming their content more fluidly than ever before to a wider audience, not to mention the opportunities it creates for online writers. How did I ever overlook this little powerful tool?! Slap-self!

Now all I have to do is make myself sound interesting…..hmmm, (‘just be yourself’ screams from my core, while my ego chuckles ‘this will be a hard task your life is super dull’) fuck it, stick the kettle on and let’s just go with it.

Allow me to Introduce myself,

My name is Michelle, a Londoner and proud mother to the most amazing six year old boy.

I have a condition known as Pseuadoachondroplasia, which is just a fancy way of saying I have restricted growth. I’m a dwarf basically, which is the most mainstream way to describe it. God I hate that word. Like, when I think of a Dwarf it just brings images of some kind of mythical creature to mind. We are so behind as Brits, like we don’t even realise how offensive we are with our language. In the States they refer to us as ‘little people’, which isn’t perfect by any means but it carries much less offence than the words ‘dwarf’ or ‘midget’. Just two words that are thrown around to loosely in my opinion.  If in doubt about what to call me now, Michelle will be absolutely fine.

Some of you may remember my son and I from a BBC THREE documentary called ‘A Special Kind of Mum. Or an article I wrote prior to this, which you are welcome to read by clicking the link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/23/dwarfism-mum

So, I am a full time mum by day, and freelance writer by night, writing articles and helping my clients with CV’S, business plans and proposals in between. How does she do it, some may say. Well, time is often the enemy, but I have come to realise there are beautiful little hidden minutes to steal throughout the day that help get shit done. Smartphones and iPads are heaven sent for any writer on the move.

A Love for Writing

I have always had a love for writing for as long as I can remember. Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories got me through a rocky childhood. My love for English Literature grew further in secondary school. It came so natural to me, that I didn’t even acknowledge the writer in me. I studied Psychology and International Politics at Uni. My choices couldn’t have been further from my calling, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy my studies as much as I had expected. But eventually I found my way back in 2010, through almost a divine intervention of two media courses; one being Catch22. My love and skill for writing grew, the penny finally dropped. This is what I want to do. And after entering a writer’s competition with The Guardian I bagged myself a day at their headquarters to meet their Editors. After pitching an idea, I was published and I am now honoured to say I am a contributor to The Guardian. I was finally aligned.

Motherhood took me on another journey, and then an opportunity to work on a project for the DFE presented itself. I took three years out to work within local authorities to influence and implement government policy for Care-leavers. Which is another thing I am very passionate about. Since the Project ended, my calling returned and I gravitated back to writing, going officially self employed as a freelance writer this year. But this time with a burning desire to write a Children’s Book. I’m Back.

Bored yet?

Crap, this is starting to sound like a CV! I am so used to writing them for my clients, that even my blog is beginning to sound like one!

If you’re still with me basically, my raison d’être for this blog is to take you on a journey. Firstly, I would like you to get to know me as a writer, but also I would like to use this blog as a way of inviting you all on my personal journey to share with you the process of how I intend to bring my Children’s book and writing career to fruition. I hope my blogs may be of some value to my readers.

Stay tuned…