N Davis

Full Name: Natasha Dejamaine Davis

Date of Birth: 3 February 1992

The eldest daughter of Kasey and Penelope Davis, with three younger siblings. My childhood was normal, though I think that everyone says that. As a child I loved to come up with all sorts of crazy adventures to take my sister on, a lot involved turning the outside table upside down magically turning it into a pirate ship. Another favourite was climbing over walls, pretending they were mountains.

I was home-schooled from the middle of grade 2 up until matric (grade 12). My favourite subjects were English and history, though not in that order. To this day I still have a deep love for history (though not all), Greek and Roman history/mythology, and the Medieval area are my preferred times. These are also the times I find myself writing about in works of fiction and fantasy. As part of my schooling I was required to write, a lot, my favourite being stories. This led me to write my first book at the age of 16, which remains unpublished. This unpublished work, and encouragement from my family, helped me take the first steps into being a writer. I will forever be grateful to my mom for home-schooling me, because if she hadn’t I would have never be able to complete my education.

When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune disease. In brief this is where the body rejects the colon, resulting in ulcers that bleed none stop. By the time doctors finally found out what was wrong with me my blood count had dropped to less than half, and I had lost a lot of weight. The pain was so unbearable that I would beg the doctors to take my colon out, which thankfully they never did because I may not have survived the surgery. I was taken off food and fed through a tube in my chest, only allowed to drink water. After months of being in the hospital my colon finally started to heal, and I was allowed to slowly start eating again, before being sent home.

When I was 13 I had a relapse, almost dying because I was still recovering from the year before. If it wasn’t for the support of my amazing mom I would have never managed to pull through, she is my inspiration in all my writing. When I was 16 the Colitis came back, though not as bad as before, and I got to stay at home, but it was still bad enough to keep me in bed for weeks. This was when I began plotting my first writing project. At the beginning of 2013 I had a small, unnoticeable flare up, which thankfully went away quickly.

I will be on medication, and on a special diet for the rest of my life. But you do learn to live with it, even if it seems hard at first or even unimaginable. Eventually it’s as much a part of your life as breathing.

In many ways the Colitis has had an influence on my writing. I’m able to help (or rather create) characters that find that they’ve got inner strength they never knew was there. The difficulties that we go through make us stronger than most of us care to admit.

With regards to my writing. My first (self) published work, Catharine and Alexander’s Adventures Though Time: Time Taper is a result of my love for mythology; followed by the sequel Catharine and Alexander’s Adventure Through Time: Poseidon’s Trident. This series is for readers aged 9-12. I am currently not working on this series but, will return to it in time.

I have recently published a book for an older audience, young adults/adults, which is based in a medieval world. There are dragons, magic and adventure! The Heldarade Chronicles: Dragons Choice is my 6th published work, and my 3rd novel to date. I am currently working on the second instalment of this series, which with any luck will be out by 2018.

I try not to stick to one category, or age group, having tried my hand at a story for very small children. In my spare time I write short stories, though this isn’t my favourite. I do believe that they keep the imagination active while plotting novels or while editing bigger projects. To date I have three short stories out, Lost In Time being the most popular of the three.

I currently live in Durban, South Africa with my family, and hope to have many more years as an author.

Look for my work published under the name N Davis.