About Soulla… Welcome.

Hi and welcome to my author and book pages and the home of my business, Writing for Life.

I am an author, an educator, a book editor and writing mentor, and more recently joined the ranks of helping authors find a home for their book, representing them as a literary agent. It’s an exciting time to be sharing my journey and I hope you’ll find the inspiration and support you’re looking for here.

For the longest time, I didn’t pursue my dream of writing and if I’m honest I felt silly talking about wanting to be a writer.

But from as young a seven or eight I remember writing and reading with such enthusiasm, energy and vigour. I was the girl at school who was always three or four books ahead of the other pupils in a book series and the one who needed “just one more minute” to finish what she was writing.

‘I often begged the teacher to let me stay in at break time just so that I could carry on writing.’

This love of writing continued into adulthood and so for a number of years I found myself penning the odd poem, planning out a chapter here, a story idea there.

But as with so many creatives, life, work and family responsibilities dominated and I got on with my day-to-day life of being the best I could be at whatever job I was doing… sales manager, marketing manager, volunteer at the local playgroup, running my own wedding planning business, running my own gift ware company with her sister and finally retraining to be a teacher in my fortieth year.

But it was my teaching career that finally catapulted me into writing again.

‘Don’t get me wrong either… I loved teaching. I loved the interaction with the students, supporting them and helping them navigate their next steps. I enjoyed the writing aspect too… reading through business studies coursework, even marking it was therapeutic for me…’

Hence why I now support authors with their manuscripts and story-ideas. I can pick out mistakes and support writers to re-write sentences so that they read better, create a beat and add a flow to their work. I help ad the sparkle to a manuscript and innately feel what needs to be changed to make a sentence not only read better but dance along with the reader.

‘Developmental editing is what I excel at.’

I enjoys putting plans and proposals together and my sharp eye will ensure a highly-polished story or piece of writing before it is published. A perfectionist (though better at accepting that things don’t always have to be perfect!) I take takes pride in being organised and time-efficient. I am someone that every writer needs on their side, right?

Getting involved in English one-to-one tuition at school for KS3 and GCSE enabled me to fall in love with language and words all over again. It reminded me how I used to read the dictionary just to learn new words! And I still offer private tuition in English Language.

Then eight years ago things began to shift at work which made me question my vocation and what sort of a life I really wanted to lead and what sort of person I wanted to be.

I yearned for something that made me tick again; made me want to shout with joy, made me jump out of bed in the mornings, and excited me.

I stumbled across the details of a writing class one cold, grey January afternoon in 2015 and although afraid of rejection (aren’t we all?) I decided to enrol.

‘I was scared to death to share my writing with the class, but secretly that’s what I longed to do, to gain recognition, validation. That first piece of feedback was a mixed bag of positive comments and a whole list of things I’d done wrong but, instead of putting me off, the feedback lit a fire beneath me.’

It was from this point that my attitude and mindset changed and I began to think of herself as an aspiring writer. Every waking moment was spent writing and re-writing. I spent hours researching writing techniques, read books on the craft of writing, read guides on editing and proofreading. Something in me was ignited and I woke up. I felt like Snow White… nearly ten years in teaching had numbed me against the joy of creativity and the pleasure of finding something new to challenge me.

I am now a six-times published author and my standalone novels are available worldwide, Broken Pieces of Tomorrow , The Summer Will Come ,  Alexander and Maria, nominated for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2021, The Village House , A Palette of Magpies and The Magic of Miramare.

My writing has also connected me with a wonderful charity in California which I am  very much involved in as a contributor of handwritten letters every month to offer support and give hope to women diagnosed with breast cancer. One of her very first  letters is featured in a book ‘Dear Friend’ and is available on Amazon.

I am also one of those ‘it could be worse’ people; I always look at the positive spin on everything that happens and many of my Instagram posts and Twitter feeds are related to being positive and finding ways to keep on going.’

So my writing has created a whole new career and I hope you’ll enjoy sharing my journey.

I would love to connect with you too. So whether you’re a writer, agent, publicist, reader, editor or author, ‘Come and join me.’

I hope my writing journey and my posts will support you and encourage you to pursue your own writing, plan your own creative journey or just enjoy the stillness of the moment.

I want to inspire you to move closer to your dream wherever you are along your personal journey already and I’m happy to share my own experience and knowledge.

Sending much love and heartfelt wishes,

Soulla