So here I am, still doing this blog thingy after discovering it reaches more people than the telepathy…
I like writing poetry, flash fiction and short stories, but I also have several novels on the go, one of them a long-running joint venture with my daughter (we’ll finish it eventually!)
I am a trained facilitator and run creative writing classes whenever I’m asked, as well as a fortnightly Creative Writing Group in Charlestown, County Mayo.
I’m originally from Elgar country in Worcestershire, England, but have lived in County Roscommon in the west of Ireland for the past 17 years, although you’d never guess from the accent.
I can often be found at the monthly Word Corner Café in the Dock Arts Centre in Carrick on Shannon, where I’ll read my poetry to anyone who’ll listen.
I am a member of the Creative Frame Professional Development Network based in CountyLeitrim.
I can sometimes be seen out and about with the Hermit Collective, a wandering band of artists, writers and musicians who do pop up shows in the west of Ireland.
I’m on Twitter: @louisegcole
And here’s a bit of back story:
As a 10-year-old I sniffed the heady scent of literary success with an award from the RSPCA for my smart words on ‘Kindness to Animals’. Up until that point, I’d wanted to become Worcestershire’s answer to Enid Blyton, but then chose a career in journalism instead.
I went on to became one of the UK’s youngest female newspaper editors, before jumping ship into Press and PR, at one time serving as the Senior Press and PR Officer to the City of Birmingham. Since then, I have earned my living in various guises as a commercial wordsmith.
Somewhere along the way, my family upped sticks from English Elgar country and landed with a herd of alpacas in Irish bog country, intrigued by the roar of that Celtic Tiger.
I live with my first husband (the one I met at a hot air balloon meet and married less than six months later) and we have two (almost) grown up children.
I despise and admire (in equal measure) the chronically house-proud, and over the years, I have nurtured a staggering number of cruelly mistreated dust bunnies. I think that proves beyond doubt that I still know how to show kindness to animals.
Louise G Cole, Writer 