I am non-conformist, guileless and have
been described as a, 'bit of a postmodernist'. I have been deconstructing
nearly everything since I was about ten but admit to not succeeding much! I am
noted for including 'cookies' or 'Easter eggs' in much of my work. I delight in
incorporating coincidences and parallels from our real world. I was born a
native of Stratford in the East End of London in September 1952 and raised in
nearby Leyton, developing a lifelong interest in literature, joining my local
library when I was three. Always a scribbler, I wrote my first stories as a
child and my favourite book is a dictionary. Oddly, I admit to being terrified
of the process, comparing it to walking blindfold along the edge of an unknown
high cliff, constantly panic-stricken, wondering where the path may lead next.
To doom or safety. I however, often find joy with the correct placement of a
single word.
A polymath, shy, slightly synaesthete
with a predilection for the supernatural since childhood and transgendered, after
working at hundreds of jobs for twenty-five years, I decided that writing was
the only activity I could do passably well and so, in 1994, after the death of
my parents, decided to change my life around and write as a transgendered
woman. Although having assisted in various TV and film projects, I enjoy
privacy and I am known for my hermit-like existence, being fully cognizance of
how people react to my preferred gender. However, I am known for my positive
outlook and broad sense of humour. My work has been described as too
complicated, too dark, too brooding and too baneful to have popular appeal and
its doubtful that it ever will...and that's the way I like it! I was a heavy
user of LSD in the late sixties and admit the drug experience probably caused
long-term permanent changes in my personality and life perspective.
I feel comfortable working simply.
During the embryonic stages of a piece, I prefer to have very little between
myself and content. Although my pieces are written up and further constructed
on a word processor, the initial, 'layering of the landscape' is achieved with
nothing more than a sharp HB pencil, a wad of new paper and a clean white
eraser. This method of creation, I accept as pure, free from electronic
distraction and infinitely and immediately alterable. Pareidolia often plays a
part in my creative process.
A lifelong migraine and panic sufferer,
my work reflects the subterranean, saturnian, plutonic, spiritual, solar and
luna aspects of human existence as I continuously attempt to understand our
world. A lifelong fascination with time, abandonment, love and death are four
qualities which motivate me.
Despite uncertain financial support, as
well as novels and full-length screenplays, I have also penned a number of
short scripts, some made into strictly amateur films directed and produced by
me. My creative output also includes several hundred songs written over a
period of thirty five years but, in my words, "You wouldn't pay to hear
them!" My other passions are listening to Tom Waits, Capsule (a Japanese
pop band-reasonably unknown in the UK), Bach, trance ('It grinds to a halt the
awful consequences of my thinking') and film music. Walking and meditation also
play a substantial part of my daily routine. I believe the greatest gift I can
give to anybody is my silence and my four most cherished proverbs are; If one
plants poison ivy, one does not get to pick strawberries, what you think of me
is none of my business, we may not always get what we want but we always get
what we expect and, we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. I
do my best to live by The Golden Rule.