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Helen Payton
I was born hard wired to write.Books and horses were my first loves. I read early. Very early. I began with Enid Blyton. Doesn't everybody? I didn't discriminate, progressing to Black Beauty, Biggl...view moreI was born hard wired to write.Books and horses were my first loves. I read early. Very early. I began with Enid Blyton. Doesn't everybody? I didn't discriminate, progressing to Black Beauty, Biggles and the Beano. Then the teaching gene reared its head. Do genes have heads? At five I taught Teddy and Easter Bunny to read Beatrix Potter.Writing became my second love but it was a close-run thing. By the age of 7, I was supplementing my pocket money by winning writing competitions run by 'Uncle Mac' in the local paper.My parents wanted me to become a nurse; I told them that I wanted to become an author. The love affair continued. English was my favourite subject in school. In my teens, I relished writing essays. I know, I know. Other people were clubbing and I was writing essays...I didn’t have to choose a subject to study at university. It chose me. English of course. After I was awarded my degree, the teaching gene kicked in again. I wanted to awaken a similar excitement in others. So, I turned to A Level teaching and became a teacher not an author.I loved it. Sharing a passion is intoxicating. And I was successful. Students achieved excellent results. More studying followed as did my Master’s Degree, this time in Education. Then promotions into management roles furthered my career.My twin passions continued to drive me. My enthusiasm for helping others to learn, led to specialising in learning effectiveness. I helped to breach the dam of learning blockages, led an extended learning project and delivered presentations at conferences in the UK and the USA.But you know what they say, ‘Those who can do; those who can’t teach’. I wanted to write. So, throughout the years, I did that as well. In downtime I produced advertisements, theatre programmes, magazine articles and travel brochures for commercial companies. My publications included articles in the Times Ed. and academic research. Finally, I set up my own copywriting company producing marketing materials, web pages.But top of my bucket list was writing a novel. So, I retired, researched and wrote ‘Bread and Buttermilk’. It took me years but I loved every minute of it. At last, I can call myself, Helen Payton, author.view less