{"id":182,"date":"2013-11-06T22:25:39","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T21:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?page_id=182"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:04:55","slug":"members","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/members\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpha Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andrea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Christine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Christine has been living in rural Normandy for twenty-one years. She channelled her lifelong passion for literature and language into a teaching career and gradually developed a sideline as a writer of both short stories and articles on wide variety of subjects.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I was born in Tunbridge Wells (1969) and I moved to Lugano in southern Switzerland in 2001 with my Italian girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018Foreign man, foreign land\u2019.  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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fanny<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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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\u2019 group is a very positive next step.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Francesca<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I am a retired Chemistry teacher who has always loved English. I only went into the sciences because everyone in my family was either Maths, Chemistry or Physics\u2026 so I did what was expected of me. No regrets\u2026 my life path made me who I am today.
Poetry is my first love, but I do enjoy short stories and I have three novels in various degrees of having been written.
I live in mid Wales, 12 miles due west from Welshpool, with hubby and a vast collection of bears\u2026 I am the ultimate arctophile. I also enjoy gardening and painting.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Joanne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Having grown up in Australia and lived in different areas of England, I know I\u2019ll enjoy corresponding with Alpha writers across counties and countries. I\u2019ve always found it easier to express myself through writing than talking\u2014hence my lifelong love of writing letters to friends near and far. I\u2019ve never tired of handwritten letters and still get a frisson of excitement at the thought of a trip to the post box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since retiring early from my career as a health professional, I\u2019ve turned my hand to writing for fun. My current favourite form is flash creative non-fiction\u2014anything brief and punchy is my thing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Maria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I took up writing relatively late in life having retired from my local government job due to ill health. I write mainly for pleasure. Having read science fiction all my life, to be able to write my own stories in this genre is a joy. So I spend many happy hours in a world of my own making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined the Alpha Writers Group because it gives me the opportunity to obtain constructive criticism. Hopefully my writing is improving. One of these days I may even pop my head over the wall and publish the draft novels hiding in the study and the growing pile of short stories (be still my beating heart).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Martin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I live in Sheffield with my wife Eva and dog Charlie and I\u2019m the editor of the prayer diary for Wycliffe Bible translators. I see myself as a writer, photographer, baker and storyteller. Recently I seem to have really grown in the flash fiction area. I\u2019d like to grow in writing short stories too. My photo was taken at a wonderful charity called Grimm and Co which I\u2019ve recently started volunteering for. It\u2019s focus is literacy for children, and according to them, as the front is an apothecary for Magical Beings, my magical being is a unicorn. If this sounds odd, then you need to visit their shop or check out their website to find out why.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Morgen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Morgen joined Alpha part-way through Season XI and has relished each and every season since.  Short stories are her ‘thing’ but lately she has been dabbling with novel writing. Her love of the written word has been tested by the experience and she has become the world’s finest procrastinator.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Patsy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Patsy Collins spends her time making things up and writing them down from her home in Lee-on-the-Solent, or whilst traveling with her husband in a campervan. When away she enjoys writing, scrambling round ruined castles, visiting friends and eating cake. At home she writes, gardens, bakes (and then eats) cakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is the author of nine novels, and over 30 themed collections of short stories, all self published. Hundreds of her short stories have been published in women’s magazines, such as My Weekly, The People’s Friend and Woman’s Weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She can be found at patsycollins.co.uk\/ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ros<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ros is a writer and publisher living in Warwickshire. In addition to writing for business publications, she writes short stories, poetry and novels. Her first novel ‘The Appearance of Truth’ was long-listed in Bridge House Publishing\u2019s Debut Novel Competition. Her novel ‘New York Orphan’ has been awarded a Premier Chill with a Book Award and an Indie Brag Medallion. She received her second Indie Brag Medallion for Violet’s War. Having forgotten to stop writing after the one book that everyone has in them, she has now lost count of her publications. Her spare time passion is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog breed in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth F<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ruth is a writer from Birmingham in the West Midlands and enjoys writing poetry and children\u2019s stories. These are modules she took on her MA in Creative Writing course (2024). Her first self published picture book is called \u2018Extraordinary Women of Destiny\u2019 (2020) about African heroines. She enjoys taking part in writing for anthologies too. As a result of her interest in literary composition she conducts writing workshops, her latest is at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery using history, paintings and artifacts as prompts. Ruth is currently developing and submitting work for traditional publishing. She is working on several picture book manuscripts and poems. Her long term plans are to produce a poetry chapbook before a full length collection and become a picture book and children\u2019s author. In her spare time she crafts, explores historical places and takes nature walks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth H<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I am a creative being.  A lifelong musician, I\u2019m  currently a cellist in a string quartet.  I\u2019m 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\u2019s  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 \u2018one novel\u2019 is still inside me, but maybe one day\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sally was a freelance garden writer for about 15 years until the end of last year, writing mainly for BBC Gardeners\u2019 World magazine and RHS The Garden (with little forays into Telegraph Gardening and the Guardian\u2019s gardening pages). She has also written four books about various aspects of sustainable gardening. Achievements on the fiction side have been much thinner on the ground! She was a very early member of Alpha, back in the days when Olaf had only just set it up \u2013 and she\u2019s delighted to be able to return to the fold.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sarah began her writing life at a local paper before moving into sports journalism. She spent over a decade as a freelancer writing primarily for the Scottish press with a focus on lower league football. She now works as a B2B content writer by day and a fantasy and horror author by night. She can be found on Instagram @writingwraiths<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Stephen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Stephen grew up in a world long gone when writing meant teaching children to fill pages with the same alphabet letter, using a dip pen and ink made from powder and poured into individual desk inkwells by the ink monitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a life in local government he wrote countless reports and briefing notes. Now retired for thirty years Stephen ‘s writing has been confined to, shall we say, local publications. The first novel is still to be written. He loves writing. Set the challenge and he’ll bash into it. After reading the protocol carefully, of course.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Suzanne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wendy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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