Meet Lou Collins Author

I still remember childhood rhymes and stories and discovering that a book was a portal to another world! The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and my favourite series, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I return to these tales like old friends; even as an adult, they never grow old.

My fascination with words manifested into an ambition to become a lawyer. Many years, books and exams later, I qualified as a solicitor and spent my days with words, writing legal arguments and analysing accident investigations and medical reports.

Then, marriage and two beautiful children became the focus of my life and 20 years flew by at the speed of light.

The last few years have been difficult. I had a virus about 6 years ago which returned 2 years later and has never left. I’ve spent the last 4 years searching for an answer. To distract myself from health issues, I searched for something to occupy my time. I realised that after raising two children I’d lost touch with who I am, and what I enjoy.

The one constant throughout my life has been books, so I wondered if I could turn that into a new interest. I thought about writing so bought some books on the subject. During October 2020, I saw a post on Facebook about NaNoWriMo. I’d never heard of it, but it looked interesting. National Novel Writing Month (often shortened to NaNoWriMo /ˈnænoʊ ˈraɪmoʊ/) is a U.S.-based non-profit organisation that promotes creative writing around the world.

Call it fate, destiny, or serendipity; I signed up to NanoWriMo and committed to writing a 50,000-word rough draft in November 2020. I had no ideas, no plot, no clue! Somehow, I came up with a story idea and reached 50k words. Was it easy? No, it was challenging and I’m still working around my physical and mental health limitations. Was it interesting and exciting? Yes!