Hello and welcome to my website
Thanks for popping over.
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I am an author of historical mystery and YA fiction. As a writing coach I can guide you along the right pathways to achieve your writing goals. As a performance coach, I can build your confidence when speaking in public and develop your acting skills.
If you are new to my writing then check out the section, E M Tilstone books for novels written under my pen name. If you want to know more about the Paper Boats trilogy, then please take a look at the YA Books section. In each section you can read extracts and find out more about the stories.
If you are a teacher or a librarian, please take a look at the schools’ resources where you will find my dystopian literature scheme of work for Key Stage 3 students, how to order books and even better, FREE resources.
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Please get in touch to find out more.
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​Best wishes
Sue
P.S. You can see what I've been up to lately and don’t forget to leave a review.
About my writing
I have been writing for a few years on and off – usually more off than on! It has taken me a long time to discover how to write and when to write and I am still learning about my style and preferences. Even after many years of teaching, I still needed an editor to point out improvements and corrections.
I like to write in coffee shops with my laptop and at home using the writing desk that belonged to my great-uncle. There is usually a mug of tea and a candle flickering. I have my trusty old dictionary and thesaurus close by. They were presented to me when I was 15 at a school prize day. I was amazed when I received a prize, having never done very well at school.
Ideas for my stories don’t arrive in my head in order and one thing I have learned is not to worry. You can write your ending before your beginning; you can write a chapter or a scene that goes in the middle. A big mind map really gets me going on my novels as well as detailed character profiles for my main characters.
Notebooks are usually in my bag when I am out and about and there’s always one next to my bed. I have accumulated dozens of bits of paper over the years, sometimes with just a couple of words, other times a whole short story and I squirrel them away to use them in my writing.
I remember sitting at Comicon, having a cup of tea – tea always helps me think - and writing a scene for Paper Boats & Butterflies. I adapted it and it became the scene when Z89 meets Esme Dorling, the school principal. (I had a hug from a Wookie while there).
