Sally Quilford - About me

Personal Facts
(Last updated May 2008)

I was born in South Wales in 1963, and moved to the Peak District in 1977. I'm married to Dennis, and we have two grown up children, three granddaughters and four West Highland White terriers. I left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications, working in a range of menial jobs until I married. At the age of 30 I returned to educations and gained an A grade GCSE in English Literature. Three more GCSEs in English Language, Maths and Psychology followed. At the same time, I studied for an Open University Degree for 8 years, taking two years out for family reasons. I now have a 2.1 honours degree in Humanities with Literature. Until recently I worked at the Citizens Advice Bureau as a general advisor, and before that, volunteered at a local Law Centre, but sadly had to give up volunteering due to ill-health. This has given me more time for writing, which is paying off as 2007 was my most successful year so far and this year is turning out quite well too.

My hobbies are writing (durr!), reading, building websites (I love any excuse to create a new website), and writing. Oh I said that.

My Writing Life

I began writing at about the time I returned to education, and very quickly had two poems published. Then - nothing for about eight years, though it's fair to say I wasn't really trying. In recent years I have been trying and now have 50 stories, articles and poems published in print, including publications such as Yours Fiction Special, The Weekly News, My Weekly, Dark Horizons and others. I've been placed in 27 competitions at the time of writing, including Leaf Books (twice), Momaya, Milton Keynes Speakeasy, The British Fantasy Society, The New Writer, Teifi Scribblers and others. I am also a regular contributor to the Amazon Shorts programme.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of running two workshops at Wigan Words '05. The first workshop was in writing flash fiction. The second in marketing oneself as a writer. A great time was had by all and I got to meet some very interesting writers from as far afield as Canada.

Other Interests

I don't just enjoy writing. I have many and varied interests. This page will link to some of the things that help me procrastinate when I should be writing.

The Open University - Though my degree has come to an end, I still like to keep up to date with what's happening at the O.U. and maybe look out for other courses I can do in the future.

George Irving I had the pleasure of meeting actor George Irving a few months ago, when he starred in The French Lieutenant's Woman in Bromley. My heart is still fluttering...

Loquax - Best competition portal on the internet. Last year I won loads of CDs and books just for entering my email address (set up a hotmail addy for that purpose) into various websites.

Internet Movie Database (IMDB) - I love this site, especially when I'm looking for answers to those competition entries (see above!).

Life in Elizabethan England - This could be in writing resources (and probably will be) but it's a lovely site for students of Tudor England like myself.

www.fanfiction.net - I'm a huge fan of fanfiction and have been known to write it in the past. It's a great way of honing those writing skills. Admittedly some fanfiction is pretty dire, but there are laughs and thrills to be had if you happen to hit on that one good writer (or a hilariously bad one!)

For the love of Westies As 'mum' to four Westies, I love reading about other Westie owners and their dogs, and this site is a joy to look at and read, with loads of pictures of outrageously cute Westies.