Something about me…

by Lois

I have always made up stories; I told stories when I was tiny and wrote them down as soon as I learned to write. I can’t remember my early work, it was usually about orphans for some reason, and I remember one memorable line “Gourds, take him away!” Spelling never was my strong suit! I wrote a lot of poetry throughout my teenage years and when I was in my early twenties I had several short stories published in ‘Honey’, a women’s magazine.

The first full length novel I wrote was set partly in the south of France and partly in Somerset and was a family saga. My next attempt was a rather ghastly love story… ghastly it may have been but some of the themes have reappeared in later work. I then wrote a mystery and although it will never see the light of publishing day, it had strong characters, a simple but fairly gripping plot and an exciting and quite violent conclusion.

Before I was able to write full-time, I was a teacher and teaching is a draining occupation, your head is full of stuff and it’s difficult at the end of the day to sweep the stuff away and become creative. Someone once told me being a teacher is like being a battery, your students plug into you and drain you; you go home and recharge and go back and they plug in again. That’s why teachers need long holidays, but after so many years the charge doesn’t take and the battery becomes emptier and emptier… I was lucky to escape for a while and have my own children. Before I went back to work, I had a great creative burst and wrote and wrote and wrote.

I returned to teaching, but in a challenging and very different sort of school, which I loved, and was extremely rewarding. I managed to retain my creativity but my output slowed. Now, thank goodness, I no longer work in  a day job, I can do what I always dreamed of doing,write full-time. I am a writer!

I have published twelve novels:

  • Flipside
  • Loving Judah

The Easthope novels

  • Farholm
  • The Double Act
  • The Stalking Of Rosa Czekov
  • night vision
  • The Double Act
  • Lucky Portbraddon

The Radwinter series:

  • Radwinter
  • Magick
  • Raddy and Syl
  • Beyond Hope
  • Earthquake
  • Saltpans

…and other stuff:

  • The Moving Dragons Write – anthology with Richard Kefford and John J.C. Watts
  • So You want To Write…
  • The Story of Rufus Redmayne
  • Screaming King Harry
  • Run, Blue, Run!

… and in the pipeline:

  • Radwinter 7
  • So You want To Write Your Family History..
  • The Dog and Pineapple

Find my novels here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lois+elsden

129 Comments

  2. rossmountney
    Reply

    Hi Lois. Nice you stopped by my blog and great to connect with another writer liberated from teaching – me too! There’s some good stuff here on your blog and I’ll be visiting often looking for tips! Congratulations on getting your book out there and hope you enjoy the next one. BWs

    Like

  5. Helen Morris
    Reply

    Hi Lois
    Well done you – published and everything. I have just downloaded Farholm and having only read first few pages I am hooked…. why is she angry, what has the island to do with her, why is she on crutches and who is the blond sailor? I can’t help hoping the angry man with no trousers appears again too! Good luck with next one and in case you are wondering my poor little book lies quietly waiting for moments between study and work which is no way to go about it I know! So proud to know you – love to Bari and kids.

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Thanks Helen!! Hope you enjoy it ad the ending doesn’t disappoint! The next one should be out in June! Keep going with yours!! We must get together again next time we’re up your way xxx

      Like

  7. creativeliz
    Reply

    Hello Lois, thank you for stopping by and following my blog 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading more of your work – what I’ve read so far of The Stalking of Rosa Czekov looks great! Best of luck for June 🙂
    All the best, Liz

    Like

  8. 24/7 in France
    Reply

    Thanks for visiting/following my blog! Congratulations on your ebook — I am in the process of writing my book that I first started in 2002 and just picked back up to finish, so you are inspiring!

    Like

  10. Subhan Zein
    Reply

    Hello Lois,

    A nice blog you have got up here. Great job! 🙂

    I’m dropping by to thank you for following my blog. I hope I don’t disappoint you and that your visits in my blog have been and will always be an enjoyable experience.. 🙂

    Have a lovely day to you and thank you again! 🙂

    Subhan Zein

    Like

  15. Chica Andaluza
    Reply

    If I didn´t live in Andalucia, I think it would be somewhere like where you live! I am currently going through the “delivery pains” of sorting out a book, so am going to have a good look round your blog! Thanks too for subscribing.

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Oh good luck with your book! is it a novel? Are you being published as an actual book? That is my dream – to one day have an actual book in hands rather than a Kindle!

      Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Thank you – I’m enjoying exploring your blog too! I’m lucky to have retired to be able to pursue my passion for writing… I’ve always written but trying to squeeze being creative into a busy life! Now I’m freeeeee!

      Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Well… not that much money … self-publicizing is not so easy when you’re an ordinary person. However, I’m so pleased though, thrilled really, but my dream is to have an actual book in my hand to thrust at people and say ‘go on, buy it!’

      Like

  23. Stephen Hughes
    Reply

    Very interesting read!
    I used to live near Summerset, well a bit further south actually – just outside Helston (and I used live in Manchester to)! – but now back in suburbia! (Coasta, Starbucks and Selfridges)!

    Thanks for liking my Bench ~ I was preying some body would and so nice to recieve it from a writer!

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Gosh, thanks for asking! Well, I started with the idea that I wanted to promote my writing, but now the blog has become my writing! From the beginning I didn’t just write about my novels but things that are important to me and which entail stories… like my family, my love of music, food… and then it just grew! I’m writing my blog in a very different way now – but I just love it and I hope you will too! I have discovered so many wonderful bloggers and learned such a lot… I really hope you find it similarly exciting and fun… and satisfying!

      Like

  26. Min
    Reply

    Lois, I just wanted to say thank you for the Like on my topic at Cafe Whispers blog. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Apart from being Min 🙂 I am also Carol Ahern and am on Facebook. We (Michael Taylor/Miglo at the blog) and I also have a couple of Facebook groups. If you have a story which you would like published on our blog, that would be wonderful. Michael and I often have guest authors. We receive around 2,000 hits per day, so it can be good publicity for an author.

    Like

  29. Louis
    Reply

    Lois, thanks for ‘liking’ my posts and for choosing to follow my blog. I hope you continue to enjoy what you find there. Having also spent a lifetime in education I can relate closely with your autobiographical snapshot. Your site has a fascinating spread of topics and I shall be returning very shortly when I hope to spend more time. Thanks again.

    Like

  31. Maria Tatham
    Reply

    Hi, Lois! It’s fun to find your site. Thank you for liking my recent post. I’m supposed to be on a vacation to write, but love to be online, so I tried to make a point with images only. Whether it worked or not, at least the pictures were worth seeing.

    Best wishes as you continue the awesome journey of writing!

    Like

  32. foodninjablog
    Reply

    Hi Lois,
    Thanks for dropping in.
    Writing is my other passion. I have a finished manuscript (once declined by lit agent) and a couple of unfinished works. Writing is not as easy to drop into like cooking and I must admit I’m not a diligent followupper. I am the reason literary agents exist, if only one would call me for my work…
    Regards

    Food Ninja

    Like

  33. littleboone
    Reply

    Hey there again. Thank you for the “like”. I’ve got your newest book. Lots of visits to the cemetery! I admire your descriptive ability. Wow, three inches above sea level. It made me hold my breath.

    Marvin

    Like

  34. SoundEagle
    Reply

    Hi Lois,

    Hello! I am writing you from Australia and it is now well over 3am on Monday! Now, I must congratulate you on all the nice results: the care and work that you have put into your blog and also having published six novels at such a young age. Well, I don’t know how old you are but you look young in photos.

    May the cooler months and the colours of autumn bring you even more inspirations!

    Like

  40. kbvollmarblog
    Reply

    Dear Lois, I am impressed, you learn Irish Gaelic, wow! I am a full time writer as well travvelling through Ireland. Now I am in Dublin researching about Joyce, Wilde and Beckett (I have been teaching literature and linguistics at the McGill University, but now I am living not so far from Cambridge at the North-Norfolk coast). Although I studied linguistics Gaelic sounds very foreign to me.
    Keep on writing!
    All the best
    Klausbernd

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Thank you! Lucky you being in Dublin, I love Gaelic but i am a very poor student… I never seem to make much progress!
      I am interested that you are researching Oscar Wilde – have you come across Ada Beddington – she was a ‘friend’ of his and a cousin of my great-grandfather – a tenuous link I know!

      Like

  41. kiosc
    Reply

    Hello Lois !!

    Thank you for visiting my blog !! I hope you will visit me again 🙂

    Your work looks amazing !! I’m looking forward to reading some of your novels.

    Best regards

    Kasia

    Like

  43. ajaytao2010
    Reply

    Hi Lois nice reading about you, I m glad I following a writer.

    Thanks for visiting my blog, be in touch with my blog browse through the categories, u will find it interesting

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Thanks! I have to say I find Gaelic really hard – but that’s more than made up by how interesting it is as a language, and what a lovely bunch of friends I’ve made through studying it!

      Like

  50. Stephen Elsden
    Reply

    Enjoyed finding this blog Lois. It wasn’t his intent to find a writing blog when I stumbled here. Will investigate further as I see some similarity in your writing style with my own along with a few other strange quirks I think we might share. Thank you for sharing.

    Like

  54. shewolfinthevalley
    Reply

    Hi Lois.. I’ve just done a link to your beetroot soup recipe from my blog (from my beetroot soup recipe!) … and as if the double beetroot wasn’t enough, we are also both called Lois! Tra la!
    Hope all is good in your Somerset world.
    Lois

    Like

  55. Alan Dagnall
    Reply

    Hi Lois
    My name is Alan Dagnall, one of the Reigate Dagnalls. I have only just come across your website regarding the Dagnall family and the Colgates of Bletchingly. I have an e-mail from my brother with scans of a family bible showing information such as births and deaths from the late 19th century including mention of Catherine Colgate plus I believe some photos of her. Please let me know if you are interested.
    Best wishes
    Alan

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Hello Alan, you’re a distant cousin of my husband! Yes I would be very interested to hear more about Catherine! I am on genesreuinted where I have what I know of the Dagnall family… are you or your brother on that site?

      Like

  56. Alan Dagnall
    Reply

    Hello Lois
    No I’m not unfortunately. I started to research my family history when my father Jack (John Ernest) passed way a few years ago at the age of 93. It is a shame because he could put names to many of the old photographs we now have. On your website you mentioned Margaret Cross. My father always maintained she was an “Orange Woman” but records seem to suggest she was from County Mayo whereas her husband Edward Dagnall was actually born in County Roscommon. It has been suggested that they may have both been in service there. They appeared to have moved a one point to Lancashire where there are still a lot of Dagnalls. There has been a suggestion that they moved from Ireland because of the famine. They later turned up in Hammersmith and thence the family moved to Reigate. I think as you are already aware, there were already Dagnalls there but do not appear to be related. I believe I have an old map somewhere that shows Dagnalls Brewery in Redhill but my father did not know of any relationship. He found the two small graves in St. Marys Parish Church, Reigate with the name Dagnall on but could not make out the Christian names. I will forward my brothers e-mail to you with the attachment . I will also scan the image of Catherine Colgate, William Thomas Dagnall and Margaret Cross, his mother and send that to you.
    To finish off, the house in which my father grew up, 44 Doods Road, Reigate, is now called Dagnall House which must have been changed after it was sold in the early 1950s when it was sold.
    Kindest regards
    Alan

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      How very interesting, Alan… I’ll pas this on to my husband as he knows the area very well; we’re coming down to Surrey next weekend and will have a look at the house on Doods Road. Interesting that you have traced them back to County Roscommon, and Mayo, for some reason I thought they came from Wexford… but I can’t now remember why I thought that! My email address is Lois Sparshott at hotmail dot com
      Thanks again, Alan

      Like

      1. Alan Dagnall

        Actually, we were both wrong. When I removed the image of Margaret Cross from the album, my father has written County Wicklow!

        Like

  57. Tasmanian traveller
    Reply

    Writing is so wonderful because it requires you to keep looking, reading and listening and then making connections. Looking at your broad swag of topics it is clear you are curious, and open. With the internet it never has been more easy to relate two events, two people, two places by delving – sometimes the connections are fact and other times they are fiction. But the chase (for me anyway) to find connections is so much fun. And perhaps that is how you found my blog.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Thank you very much! yes the internet is amazing… it has opened the window on so much of the world. I hope to visit Tasmania 2016/17… and in the meanwhile, I shall enjoy exploring your blog!

      Like

      1. Tasmanian traveller

        We have a very active Tasmanian Writers Centre which advocates for the needs of writers, provides workshops, festivals and much more for Tasmanian writers. Perhaps you might approach them to offer some of your experience and knowledge when you visit.

        Like

  59. Gloria Evans (nee Charles)
    Reply

    Hi Lois, I must have been at school with you – 1967-1974. Remember Miss Brookes? I definitely remember that traffic light buzzer outside her door – how all the teachers used to go by on their way to the staffroom and stare at you as if you had done something wrong – even if you’d gone because you were ‘highly commended’!

    Like

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Hello Gloria, I think we just missed – I left in 1967 to move to Somerset… but yes, who could forget the traffic light buzzer, or the bottle green knickers! We have a facebook page if you would like to join us!

      Like

  60. Tony Robinson
    Reply

    Hello Lois
    My name is Tony Robinson. I reside in Melbourne, Australia and am interested in the information you have posted about David Hoy. My connection to him is through his marriage to Janet Millar. Her daughter, Grace, is my great, great grandmother and she include the name Hoy in the names of two of her children. I have a query relating to some of the information you have posted on your blog. You mention in the opening that he trained as a shipwright in Baltimore, but later on comment that it was is Boston. Would you mind clarifying which of these is likely to be the most correct?
    I am very interested in the information you have posted re this man and may have further information if you are interested.
    Thank you for your work on this part of my families history
    Kind regards
    Tony Robinson`

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Hello Tony, thank you for getting in touch, as you can see I am a great admirer of David Hoy. It is some time since I wrote about him, but I’ll look back and track that information… maybe you would like to email me… lois sparshott at hotmail dot com, all lower case, no spaces. Happy New year!

      Like

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