Alpha Members

I was born in Tunbridge Wells (1969) and I moved to Lugano in southern Switzerland in 2001 with my Italian girlfriend.

I started writing in 2011 as a “cure” for chronic insomnia. I took part in the 2014 Poestate poetry festival in Lugano, with a piece named ‘Foreign man, foreign land’.  My first ever public reading and the piece was well received and gave me confidence. I became self-employed in 2015 which, for several years, took a lot of my energy and attention but I’ve started writing once again over the last two years, between early-morning poems and a novel which, strangely, hasn’t yet abandoned me like the other 7 or 8 in the past.

Greetings from York and thank you for letting me on board.  I am Colette. I have been writing for four years or so, following retirement. I have had one short story published and another accepted as part of a possible anthology. I was focussing on short stories but have now disappeared down the wormhole of the third revision of my novel. I also try to write poems, but I easily lose heart with them. I love writing which is just as well as I am not expecting to ever earn a penny from it. 

My name is Colleen Sherlock. I live in Derry, New Hampshire with my adult disabled daughter. I fell in love with writing in the second grade when we were asked to write a silly story. My teacher laughed when she read mine and told me I have a “hell of an imagination”. Nowadays I write mostly fiction. I am about half way through a manuscript that’s contemporary fiction. I look forward to working with you all!

Fanny grew up in England, where she worked as a bookseller and editor before setting off for Paris with a backpack three decades ago. Now settled in the south of France, she works as a translator, copy-editor and sometimes English teacher. Fanny has been writing forever but has only recently begun to take her literary ambitions more seriously, with some successes to date. Being part of the Alpha writers’ group is a very positive next step.

Liz moved from the UK to the Catalan region of France, near Perpignan, in early 2019, following her dream to pursue a creative lifestyle after nearly fifteen years in automotive engineering. She now splits her time between freelance editing and proofreading, and writing fiction. She has two timeslip novellas and a full-length historical novel published in her own name, and a string of erotic short story compilations under the pseudonym of Kitty Mulholland.

I’m a retired Science and Computing teacher from Lancashire. I now live in rural Norfolk with my wife, Vicky and two cats. We found our way here via South West France where we lived for four years after retirement. Grandchildren then pulled us back. I developed a love of writing after completing a degree in English and Creative Writing with the OU. I like to write flash fiction, short stories and sometimes poetry. When not writing I spend my time volunteering and looking after grandchildren.

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, I am a freelance academic writer. With an engineering background, having six years of engineering experience, alongside over four years of experience in academic and literary writing. I specialise in helping international students refine essays, through precise editing, clear feedback, and structured guidance. In addition to my academic work, I enjoy exploring literary projects, breaking down complex ideas for a variety of audiences, and learning new concepts. Outside of writing, I’m a gamer with a curious mind, always looking for ways to grow and improve my skills.

Polly lives in North Yorkshire and has loved writing since she was a small girl. She enjoys writing short stories and one day would love to complete a novel.
She has worked numerous jobs (none of them writing related) including call centre worker, teaching assistant, health care assistant and even a bit of waitressing and bar work. She currently works as a medical secretary which she has done now for several years.
Her other interests include yoga/keeping fit and currently takes part in a weekly bootcamp.
This is her second time around joining Alpha after a break to concentrate on other commitments. She loves how the Alpha group inspires her and encourages a good writing habit.

I am a creative being.  A lifelong musician, I’m  currently a cellist in a string quartet.  I’m also a lover of the written word. In my youth I was never without a book in my pocket. Parenthood to two boys soon put a stop to that! I  began writing seriously about ten years ago, continuing until one of life’s  more challenging periods got in the way. I love poetry, perhaps the closest the written word comes to music, but have also written flash fiction and short stories. The ‘one novel’ is still inside me, but maybe one day…