Authors Electric

Probably due to my advanced age, assembling a memoir, among my  various writing projects, throws me back to a childhood that I remember in a time that now seems more like history than recollection.   Original "Hollywoodland" sign, 1938 I was a pup before television, computers, the internet, social media, the polio vaccine, jet airliners, the cold war, and nuclear weapons.  My boyhood memories blend with what my parents heard intently on our radio - a sleek, deco, maple-panelled, 1930s Philco cabinet in the living room that broadcast soap operas, the evening news, mysteries, variety shows and Franklin Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats."  My memories span from America's post-WW2 rise to free world leadership to its present, self-immolation, from the Great Depression's end and Allied leadership to being led by a self-destructive, traitorous, sociopathic president who commands the American miliary to forget the Constituion, and turn on fellow citizens. UT & fa...

Not too sure why I'm sharing a name with Tina Rath! This past month I've been "appearing"! On radio, in public, attending events, doing book signings - I almost feel like a celebrity. Around this time last year, I was gadding around the country on the White Witch book and DVD tour . This year, I've been out and about too. Is it the time of year, maybe? Or just co-incidence? Towards the end of September, I was in Nantwich at a writers' event. I blogged about it last month . As a result of that, I was invited to visit  Radio Northwich - a local independent digital radio station - to talk about my books and my writing. So in early October, with much trepidation, I arrived at the radio station above a small shop in town and met my host Jeff Stuart. Five minutes later we were live on air! Now I hate the sound of my own voice (yes, I know that might be hard to believe for those who know me...) and I was dreading the idea of headphones, so I turned it all of...

Debbie Young in Hawkesbury churchyard (Photo: Angela Fitch) In 2010, realising that no matter how hard I worked in my day job, it was leaving me unfulfilled, I made the radical decision to walk away from it without a job to go to. I intended to refocus my life on my writing ambitions . Reading Between the Lines It felt like a miracle when I almost immediately landed a part-time job with a wonderful children's reading charity , Read for Good , which served two purposes for me (apart from giving me an income, that is): It reinforced the importance of books and reading not only for children but for all ages, which in turn validated my ambition to write books myself.  It gave me space to explore different ways in which I could write what I wanted to write - and indeed to discover exactly what that was.  Using commissioned non-fiction projects and experimental short stories as stepping stones, I gradually gained the confidence and competence needed to achieve my ...

I started out as a radio writer, doing plays for Afternoon Theatre and a short series called Just Before Midnight , one of which I re-wrote for the stage. I also penned short stories for both radio and magazines. Writers sometimes feel that things have got a bit stale, so I did an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa, which was terrific fun. After that I became a poet for a bit. The need to make some money (and on the suggestion of my agent) I started writing rather more racy stuff under a pseudonym, initially in short story anthologies and later in novels for – shall we say – the more adventurous female reader. Eventually I was told there was too much plot in my stories, and not enough of the other, so I did a complete about-turn to children’s books, which have been my most successful venture. I’ve also done a couple of straight adult novels. This means that I have mixed in many different writing worlds, and they’re not the same by any means. They do, of course, change over the ye...

For about twenty five years from the mid seventies to the turn of the new millennium, I wrote for radio. I have more than a hundred hours of produced radio drama to my name, including many original plays, series and serials as well as dramatizations of classics like Ben Hur, Kidnapped and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Because most producers want the playwright to be there for the duration of the production – studio time is always tight, so you’re expected to do rewrites on the hoof - I’ve spent weeks in radio studios. Kidnapped and Catriona in ten hour-long episodes involved so much time in a small, stuffy Edinburgh studio with no natural light, that the producer pinned up a quote from Kidnapped on the wall: day and night were alike in that ill-smelling cavern . We knew how poor David Balfour felt. Although the hot scones sent up by the canteen at tea time were excellent! I’ve worked with some wonderful producer/directors and equally good audio technicians. I’ve seen huge changes...