Vida Walsh

I've been writing since I was about 7 years old. Back then, it started with silly little rhymes, best i could do for that age, and it progressed from there. At primary school I won a trophy 2 years in a row for English age 10 and 11. In high school I was one of two pupils to get the highest grades out of 1500, English and Drama included in those GCSEs.
I ran away from home at 17 and moved to England from Ireland, and through that traumatic period of my life, writing was my version of divine intervention. I went to college and did Media Production. It was there that I realised that a career could be built on my talent as a writer so I began to pursue it. I graduated from university in 2005 with a joint degree in Creative Writing and Sociology - two subjects I absolutely adored studying. This year I used some initiative to finally get a job where I get paid for writing (two years after the end of my degree - better late than never), and basically sold myself to the local paper (Lancashire Telegraph). Apparently I gave a very good interview, impressing the editor and bagged myself the job as Mobile Internet Journalist. Of course its a great opportunity but also very bizarre as I have absolutely no journalism training or experience! The paper though is letting me have my own blog on the website, so that's close to having my own column - one of my goals.

I have one book idea that I'm trying to explore, and hopefully with the financial benefits of this job I will be able to get started on it. It's actually a story that is derived from my Creative Writing dissertation, about the Xian version of God, but written in first person. My dream is to emigrate to Canada, live out in the middle of nowhere and write from home, whether it be fiction, poetry or something journalistic, I'm not especially fussy. I just know that writing has to be part of my life - for the rest of it.