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............................ Biography ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................
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Biography
Helen
was born in
Auckland, New Zealand where the summers are hot and the winters are warm.
Her mother is a native New Zealander and her father is a native Highlander.
At just eight years of age, she began moving around the world and finally settled in
her father’s birth place in the Scottish Highlands,
where the summers are cool and the winters even cooler.
Caithness, in the Highlands of Scotland, is where her home and heart is. It's a little bit remote and can be a bit wet and cold at times - but the warmth of the people makes up for it and is what first attracted her to Caithness. Having just arrived on her first holiday there, she went exploring with her brother and sister and after a very short time, they seemed to have made friends with most of the neighbourhood's children and their dogs. The warmth of so many 'strangers' was such an amazing feeling and one that she'll never forget. But there was nothing strange about them at all. They were fantastic. The people, combined with the
breathtaking scenery and coastline, are what make Caithness such a beautiful
place to visit and live. Many arrive for a few days or weeks and never
want to leave, particularly in the summer. And like Helen, some don't.
For those whose first visit happens to coincide with one of our very wet, wintry
spells - where the wind is so cold it rips the fine layers of skin from your
face - it can sometimes be hard to convince them of Caithness's beauty.
But those days don't happen too often. And when they do, there's always a
warm home or pub ready to welcome you with warm smiles and fond memories to take
away with you. Helen enjoys expressing herself using the written word and has dreamed of writing books since childhood, but there was always one excuse or another that prevented her from achieving that. There was never any time. Setting herself a 5-year goal to be a published Author by the time she was 40, Helen made the time and began to study the do's and don'ts of writing and becoming an Author.. She began her first novel writing about a haggis. She was introduced to the McHaggises in the Spring of 2003. The shrill ringing of the telephone broke her peaceful surroundings as she was unwinding from a hard day at the office. It was her mother-in-law. Richard & Judy were running a competition for a children's short story and she should enter and suggested writing about the McHaggis family that her son (Helen's husband) used to write about when he was a 'wee loon' . So there it began. Helen
first met Toby McHaggis. But Toby
was too much of an introvert and he got fed up with her invasive
questions. After having received a few rejections from publishers
and agents, Toby passed Helen onto a haggis called Brodie McHaggis - a
much more exciting and fun character. And from thereon, she formed a
great friendship with Brodie who allowed her to write about his first
adventure - which was much more than a short story so it didn't quite
find its way to Richard & Judy's competition. As Helen's 40th birthday was rapidly approaching and so was her goal, she decided to go the self-publishing route and set up her own small publishing company to market Brodie McHaggis. Her first book was published in 2005 and her second book in 2007. The
Brodie McHaggis books are light-hearted and suitable for listing under
the titles “Children”, “Humour”, “Family” and “Scottish
Tales”. They are
Scottish, and will be appealing to just about anyone with a need
for new adventures, characters and weird creatures ... and just plain
magic. Helen
has a real passion for the Scottish Highlands and when the story began
to formulate, she had to make sure that it included some of the
Highland’s best-loved icons, such as Nessie, Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle
and, or course, lucky white heather, along with a host of Scottish
Faeries, goblins and other strange creatures.
Scotland has a great following around the world and she wanted to
prove that haggises, and Nessie, really do exist.
But you have to open your mind to be able to enter the other
world that exists around us. A
world that, generally, only children and animals can see because we’re
too busy to notice. Have
you ever wondered what your cat is really staring at when there looks to
be nothing …? But, Helen does
advise caution because once this world has been entered, there is no
telling what will happen and there is no going back. At the moment, writing and publishing is a part-time venture as Helen continues to work full-time. Her dream is to devote the rest of her life to writing. She says, 'many of us go through life doing jobs as a source of income rather than as an enjoyment, and we spend our days dreaming of what we would really like to do. Most of us say that we will make the time for it when we retire. I don't want to do that. I want to live the rest of my life living out the dream.' Helen is enjoying the new challenges that the writing and publishing world is throwing at her - albeit a tough, world. There are highs and lows, but there have to be - that's life. Her dream has only just begun. |
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