: About Me

I love to write. I grew up in an era when you wrote letters rather than sent texts - I used to enjoy writing newsy letters to my grandparents, who lived in another country. I also remember sitting for hours and scribbling short stories when I was quite young.

To this day I still write, but for work not pleasure. I am a business communicator who pens text for websites, writes copy for promotional material, bashes out direct mail letters and creates corporate profiles.

I decided to join Helium to put my creative writing into practice and hopefully gain some constructive criticism for my stories.

My passion is ...

Chocolate and writing.

I know too much about ...

Nothing. I'm always learning. You can never know too much!

My parents always told me ...

"Be true to thine self."

My childhood ambition ...

To suceed in whatever I do.

My favorite memory ...

Long summer evenings playing in the water from the garden sprinkler.

Why I write ...

I love to.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

International news, online and on TV - it's great to feel connected to the world!

My first job ...

Packing groceries, when paper bags were used.

My best moment ...

Watching my son play his ukelele and sing.

My inspiration ...

Listening to others who have battled through life and realising if they can achieve things, against all odds, then so can I.

Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Facing death

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Dying to be Thin The stale smell of death filled the room. The pot plant stood decaying in the cracked terracotta pot, despite its weekly watering. I glanced across the room at the skeletal form of my sister in bed. Her soulless eyes sunken into her face, her cheekbones protruding from her greyish skin, her body unmoving. Only yesterday she was vigorously doing sit ups under the cover as I'd walked in. "You shouldn't have called her fat. You shouldn't have said she looked like Miss Piggy!" I chastised myself. "It's your fault for being a size six. You shouldn't be so skinny and eat chocola...

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• Creative Writing Bronze
• Helium Charter Member