Elisabeth Walter

Elisabeth Walter is not my real name, being a nom de plume made up from my grandparents’ first names.

I have had an eventful life, which started with my mum having to raise me by herself, as my father had gone skirt chasing while I was actually being born, and left for good when I was two. His various marriages and affairs have resulted in giving me a total of at least nine half siblings, five of whom I have met.

I was a precocious child, being the centre of my mother’s world until I was fifteen, when she finally remarried, too late to give me the father and close family I would have liked.

As a teenager I wasn’t an angel, although neither was I a real demon, but my search for love ended with me becoming a single mum at eighteen. I then went through various relationships, including two marriages, and running off with a sailor for a couple of years. Through all this my children were dragged around with me, with the resultant mental damage that can cause. They were however always fiercely loved. Within these various relationships I have lived with a depressive, an alcoholic and a man who turned out to be more interested in my younger child than he was in me, and who would resort to using physical harm as well as the mental torture with which he was so adept at manipulating others.

Finally leaving the perpetual emotional ups and downs, I met and married my third husband, a wonderful man who is perfectly “normal”, honest, dependable, and extremely forgetful! We met on what was then Dateline, and he exceeded the “list” I had of attributes, what more can I say? We too have had our ups and downs, and although these have mostly been external to us, not all has been sweetness and light throughout. Everyone carries some baggage, and this often causes conflict in a relationship.

I have, during my working life, among other things, worked in various drawing offices, and a hospital pathology laboratory. I have done sign writing, been an electronics draughtsman, done contract cooking, worked a weighbridge for fifteen years, and been both a landlady and a registered childminder, which two latter jobs utilise many of the same skills!

Throughout all my life I have had two major loves, one being the many dogs and cats with whom I have shared my life, as well as the many other pets which have loved me and mine as well as being loved back during various periods. The other love I have always had is for reading, and I have eagerly soaked up as much fiction as I have been able to lay my hands upon, with my preference being for Science Fiction or Fantasy, although I have enjoyed Cowboy stories, Detection novels, Georgette Heyer books, and many others besides.

My all-time favourite authors all have one thing in common, which is the ability to create a believable alternate world view that enchants, mystifies, and draws the reader into its intricacies. These authors include Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Roger Zelazny, Jean Auel, Anne and Todd McCaffrey and many others too numerous to mention. The two most highly regarded would however have to be Piers Anthony and Brandon Sanderson, both of whom have so much skill at creating a world that I am literally in awe of them both.

As for me, I now live quietly in retirement (a town in the Bournemouth area of Dorset), except when attending AFC Bournemouth football matches, during which I am anything but quiet! This latter passion was one to which I was almost dragged kicking and screaming, but their wondrous exhibitions of skill and teamwork during what was to prove to be their last season in the Championship proved my undoing, and I had to admit that I was firmly hooked.

Normal life now consists of spending time with my husband, cats and dogs, enjoying country walks, gardening, making cheese bread, playing indoor bowls, and of course writing.

I try to write my books without the gratuitous sex scenes that sometimes seem to prevail, with the intention of appealing to both adults and teenagers, and in the interest of leaving some things to the imagination! I don’t mind how fevered your imagination may be, and you have my full permission to apply such, at appropriate places in the narrative, but in my writing at least, it mostly finishes at the bedroom door! I have of course drawn on my life experiences to form the characters and situations in my books, but this is also mixed with a large dollop of imagination! No character is entirely lifted from life, so all are therefore completely fictional. Should you recognise anyone from my descriptions, then you may well have encountered someone that I have not. It is my hope that others will enjoy the worlds that I create, or which, if I am brutally honest, which create themselves in the main. If I achieve even a small amount of "believability" then I will be content.

I have finally completed the last two books in the Gandhi Collection, "Liberating Times" and "where is Home?" and am currently engaged in writing the next book in the Turvey Series, "The Answers are in Babylonia".

Should I get writer's block at any time on that story (not happening at the moment mind you) I have two other projects in the pipeline, namely "The Friendship Sagas", which series will follow some of the characters, and visit some of the places first encountered in The Gandhi Collection.

The other project is "Short Stories from the Suzzara Sector". These will follow up on the “loose ends” from the Gandhi Collection, answering the questions that begin, “What happened to ….?” and may well form a seventh book in the collection.

Hope you are all keeping well in these difficult times, but, on the bright side, it does give you plenty of time to read!

E.W. xx