Allow Me To Introduce Myself

As you may have guessed, I am Valerie Samuels. I'm a 30-something British fiction writer and I primarily write fantasy fiction aimed at that interesting group between YA and High Fantasy. I am a voracious reader myself and I take special pride in the fact that my personal library includes a little bit of everything. One of my greatest joys in life has been the realisation that there is something wonderful to be found in even the least appreciated literature. There is a long-standing theory that there are only five stories in the world, retold over and over in different ways. Whilst I don't necessarily disagree with it, I think it does a major disservice to writers.

Anyone who has the desire and ability to sit down and write a story using sheer will and the power of their imagination, is something miraculous to me. I spent my childhood getting lost in other people's fictional worlds, taking my favourite pieces and using them to inspire my own. I climbed the beanstalk with Jack, drove alonL the country lanes with Mr Toad and created marvellous medicine with George. I loved and hated alongside Cathy and Heathcliff, I ran away with Peter Pan and worried about the Bermuda Triangle with Adrian Mole. I stalked the underground gangland of 1950s London ith Maura and Michael Ryan, I fought demons back-to-back with Clary and Simon, I raised a wand with Harry Potter and I solved crimes with Poirot. I lived and breathed a hundred lives, in a thousand different worlds. If there are only five stories, I have been moved, changed and shaped by all of em, over and over again.

The authors I have loved and learned from, may not have always turned out to be the people I had hoped they were, but their stories have had no less of an impact on me. They have built in me the need and passion to write my own stories and to live my own beliefs. I hope that, one day, if anyone looks back over my work and decides to also examine my life, they will find a person who always tried their hardest to stand by the lessons their characters learned. I want to be a good person AND a good writer.

I have been writing my entire life. Years ago, I even published a series of books under a different name. They were awful. Well, maybe I'm being a little self-deprecating. They were immature. I was barely out of my teens and fuelled by passion, more than actual skill. Not that I regret the experience. Writing those books helped me to develop an entire world for my characters, to solidify their lore and lives so that they are so deeply embedded into my brain that sometimes it's hard to remember that they're not actually real people. I took those books off the market once I had made the decision that I wanted to re-write them with the developed skill that I had put the following years into honing.

That stalled somewhat, as I took a detour via university, but all the time that I have been studying and living, I've also been writing. I've been expanding the world of my books, building their history and figuring out what makes them the way that they are. This exploration of the back stories within my books, means that I have a wealth of 'excess' material and I thought that releasing them here would be a good way to make sure they not only don't just go to waste in a notebook somewhere, but also to share with other people, the process that goes into my personal writings.

My plan is to release my long-read fictions chapter-by-chapter, aiming to post at least one chapter a week. I am also planning to release some of my one-short short stories and blogs regarding the way my brain works as I write.

The world of fiction writers is notoriously insular and closed. Either no-one knows the secrets to success, or they are just don't want to share them. Anyone who has ever attempted to break into the literary sphere can tell you that we are pushing our way into an already flooded market. Whilst that reality can seem discouraging and disheartening, it also leaves us with room to make mistakes, to grow and to learn. I intend to use this platform, alongside my social medias, to document that process. I may never make a living this way and I'm alright with that. Maybe someone can learn from my mistakes along the way. Maybe not.

I'll be happy if my stories get read and I'll be delirious if someone, somewhere finds some joy in spending time in the world I have built. Although, I do feel that I should warn you...I don't do 'happy endings'.