I live with my family, I am a wife and mother of two boys, in the east of England. I worked for many years at an arts organisation. After I had my children, I used to make animations with children at my local school using stop-motion or the Scratch coding app. Currently, I design cards and stationary which I sell on my Etsy shop Hevivity.

As a child, my brother and I constantly drew for a hobby. Although he was older, so he was better. Even when I first went to school I remember being the best at drawing stick people in the class. (Which was great because I didn't know I was any good until that point – my brother always said I wasn't!)

In my college years, I spent a year practically living in a library (occasionally I went to college) where I would draw, read and write. When I moved to a different college I learnt how to touch type on the computer, which was so much easier than using a pen and paper. I spent my break times at that college writing humorous short stories, but was not sure anybody would actually want to read them. They were a bit wacky. Although my friend liked them, that was not enough to persuade me to do it as a career. As I had always been talented at art and design, I went on to university where I collected a first class BA degree in Graphic Design (with an animation specialism). I was drawn towards learning animation because through that subject I could tell a story and use my artistic skills as well.

After leaving university, I worked at an arts organisation where I would get to use a multitude of creative skills. There I would do animation workshops, video-editing, website design, design promotional print for their contemporary gallery space, branding and much more besides. I continued there for nearly ten years as I enjoyed the atmosphere of a small, friendly team and working across a great variety of projects. I also worked on many freelance projects throughout this time.

In my later life, after I had my kids, I was inspired to become an author from reading books with them. I wrote my own children's fiction and, in addition, brought the story to life with my own illustrations. Double the fun— I mean hard work!