Authors Electric

                                                            I am a neurodivergent tutor, businesswoman, performer and writer. I am very successful in all of these areas, even winning awards, yet I mask my very real struggles every day, leading to disbelief and gaslighting. So what are the realities of a ‘hidden disability’ for this ‘Superwoman’?   I know some of you won’t believe me, so maybe I am wasting my ink, but I struggle everyday with some aspect or other of daily life, and what you see in articles, professional life and on social media is only the tip of the iceberg. Yes, I appear to be quite annoyingly successful at everything I do. But the next time you call a person like me ‘Superwoman’, imagine that I am also battling with Kryptonite on a daily basis.   In 2018, I was diagnosed with Autis...

                                                                      I consider the ups and downs of being a freelance businesswoman and creative, and why it is sometimes a battle to be taken seriously. It’s a stormy day in what promises to be a sweltering summer, and am I relaxing with my feet up on this ‘day of rest’? Don’t be silly, I’m self-employed! Time off? You must be joking! Whilst you nine-to-fivers can make plans for the weekends and evenings, every time I do something other than my actual job, I lose money. So, I work seven days a week, every evening and a bit of Saturday and Sunday morning. Yes, I love what I do, and you know what they say – if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. Well, it sure feels like hard work sometimes, I can tell you. ...

The diary I'd received as a gift For the last three years I’ve been working as a tutor for my local council. Part of my departments remit is to reach those who’ve had a negative experience of education or haven’t had access to education as an adult. We cover a vast range of subjects and I’m lucky enough to teach the creative courses including writing. I teach two writing courses, one of which is designed to encourage students to discover their muse and write what they want to, for whatever reason they may have. Be it for therapeutic reasons or to make some form of income.  My courses are just ten hours long, two hours per week, for five consecutive weeks. In January I started a new creative course. At the beginning of the first session I asked, “what’s stopping you from writing?” I received the normal replies, including:  “I don’t have an imagination.” “I have no idea where to start.” “I’d quickly run out of ideas.”   To convince my students...

I am writing this having just had the delightful experience of teaching creative writing at the British Council/Kingston University Summer School in Athens.     It was a great experience because it was in Athens; because it was in the Summer; and because I got to see the Acropolis for the first time. Need I go on? It was also great because I really like teaching as it obliges me to think about writing in a slightly more analytical way, to formulate different ways of expressing familiar ideas and to challenge some of my lazier habits.   The main reason it was great, however, was because the people I met were all amazing. The majority were native Greek speakers whose grasp of even idiomatic English was phenomenal.This always makes me feel inadequate and humble because all I do is write in my native language and these ‘students’ have jobs which involve specialist knowledge, in engineering, business and God knows what altogether and yet they can also writ...