Founder/ Lover of Limes and Birds: LimebirdBeth
Contact: beth@limebirdwriters.co.uk /@limebirdwriters- UK Based
Hello there! I’d like to extend a warm welcome to you from all of us here at Limebird Writers. Well, I guess you’ve reading here because you want to know a bit more about me. The reason why I created Limebird was to have a place where writers from all backgrounds and genres could come and hone their craft, and have a community of other writers to share ideas with.
I’ve always loved writing and reading every since I was very little, and as a (sort of) adult I completed a degree of English Language, Literature and Journalism (with a heavy side dose of procrastination) at the University of Hertfordshire. So I guess I am officially a full time language nerd.
I currently work as a Copy/Content Writer for a Digital Marketing company, so even at work I’m writing. I love to read, but am not a literature snob (I love a good Twilight book – don’t judge me) and enjoy a wide range of books.
Erm, what else is interesting about me…. I am rather partial to orange chocolate. Although not entirely relevant to writing, it is very important. Also quite easily distracted, especially by anything which is shiny or sparkly, so if you’re talking to me about something serious, bear that in mind.
Anyways, if you have any questions about writing, degrees etc then don’t hesitate to contact me, or any of the other trouble makers on this site.
Beth x
It is my pleasure to introduce the Limebird Writers and the Limebird Writer contributors (additional writers that contribute content occasionally):
Limebird Writers (In alphabetical order)
Author: LimebirdAmber
Contact: @ottabelle – USA Based
Hi there, my name is Amber. I wanted to join as soon as I met the Limebirds in the beginning; fear held me back. I simply love to write. I plan to attempt any format I can. As of yet, I have only written essays, short stories and a work-in-progress novels that talk to me, and make me feel guilty.
I don’t have any shiny credentials that make me “qualified” to offer any advice, other than learning through doing and talking to people who know more than me (there’s always someone who knows more than you, by the way). I plod through and keep my hope alive. I fall into dark spells, but I haven’t given up yet! I hope you enjoy my posts.
Random fact: I get nervous about everything, down to what to wear each day!
Personal Blog – Conversing With Novels
Author/Mother Duck: LimebirdCat
Contact: @Cat_Mercer – UK Based
Good morrow dear readers, fellow writers and forces of the beyond, I am Limebird Cat. I am a poet, actress, author, blogger and ponderer of the use and meaning of our mother tongue. I also like to use words like ‘alas’ and finish sentences with ‘all woe is me!’. I began my creative life acting in various theatre companies as a kid, leading to nothing exciting or practical. I once auditioned for the kids TV programme ‘Children’s Ward’ for example. I then got in to poetry and then writing prose.
I obtained my BA Joint (Hons) in English (Lit & Lang) and Drama from Edge Hill University in 2004 after which time I bagged myself a job in the heady world of administering academia at a Yorkshire University. My job requires that I at least look intelligent – I have had varied amounts of success with this.
When I’m not concerned with matters academic, I am a mother, wife, reader, sketcher/drawer and a slightly mad writer lady. I mentor young up and coming writers on an informal basis to encourage them to find a voice. Sometimes, a bit of encouragement is all that is needed to get you to hit the ground running.
An advocate of using grammar and language as a form of art, I enjoy manipulating, cajoling and down-right intimidating words to get an artistic, avant garde result. I defy conventional use of language and punctuation. I say put what you want where you jolly well please. As long as it was intentional and artistically justifiable, of course.
Personal Blog – Continuous Strings
Author: LimebirdDennis
Contact: @dennismlane – SA Based
Hi, I’m Dennis, and proud to join the Limebird Writers team!
I’ve travelled the world since 1986, living and working in 14 countries, and have now settled in my spiritual home of South Africa. I worked in a steel works during the steel strike of 1980 and was a student teacher during the teaching strike of 1986; since then I’ve been followed around the world by coups, earthquakes and hurricanes. If I visit, then batten down the hatches! Apart from realising that I always need to watch the news and keep a bag packed; my travels have given me, what I hope is, a broad understanding of people and the world.
My first poetry collection “8 Million Stories” came out in November 2010. My first Young Adult novel entitled “Talatu” is planned for late 2012; as is a science fiction collection of short stories, poems, nanofiction etc. tentatively entitled “Multiversality”.
My partner calls me pedantic (thinking it an insult!) but, as the English word ‘pedant’ can trace its roots back through 15th Century Italian and, ultimately to the mediaeval Latin pædagogans “to act as pedagogue, to teach”, I take it as a compliment…
Outside of writing, I paint, present a monthly review of old SF movies on StarShipSofa, cook, play the harmonica and spend far too much time watching football.
Personal Blog – DennisMLane
Author/Queen Binx: LimebirdKate
Contact: @4amwriter – USA Based
Hi! I’m LimebirdKate and I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of this fabulous team of Limebird Writers.
In writing circles I am also known as 4am Writer, which means exactly what it implies. I get up at 4 in the morning to write for two hours. It is the only time that I have to myself, so I am on my laptop busily setting a house on fire, putting my protagonist in a car wreck, finding long-lost children, unearthing murder weapons.
I graduated University of New Hampshire with a dual degree in English and Psychology,with a focus in Creative Writing. I worked at a publishing house as a copyeditor and I have written copy for business websites and brochures.
Currently I am a writing coach, and I critique and copyedit fiction and non-fiction for experienced writers as well as the newbie writer. I have a short story published in The Greensilk Journal, and I am querying my first novel, Spark of Madness, to literary agents.
On the non-writing front, I’m a crazed mother of two adorably cheeky children, and a crazed daughter of an 82-year-old, convertible driving, antique collecting mother, and a crazed wife of a man who has trouble believing that writing is a job…ahem. You’ll hear all about them and how they impact my writing life. Trust me.
Personal Blog – 4amwriter
Author: LimebirdLaura
Contact: @loudogg2055 – USA Based
Hello world! My name is Laura and I come to you from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, USA. My husband likes to point out to me that I’m “pushing 30” daily…and I enjoy punching him in the nose. kid! Violence is not the answer my friends! Ahem, where was I? I love movies, and have studied screenwriting and film editing. I certainly don’t fancy myself an expert at screenwriting, but I have written several short scripts that were successful in screenwriting competitions. I also love to write short stories, mostly horror. I did complete one NaNoWriMo novel, which I’m working on revising.
Author/Blogger, and Mom to a Teen : LimebirdNeeks
Contact: @neekswrite – USA Based
Hello everyone, I am so excited to be joining the Limebird site. The only qualification I have to be here I suppose is a lifelong love affair with the written word. I did not go to college. I’ve been writing off and on since I was ten years old and I promise someday I’m going to learn how to do it right. At present I am a contributing author to The Valdosta Magazine. It’s out of nearby…wait for it…Valdosta, Georgia! I’ve recently started blogging over at neekswrite and have been having a blast with that.
Oh my real job? The one I’m doing when I’m not trying to come up with interesting things that I hope someone will want to read one day? I work with an airline as a station agent. I’ve been there 14 years so I work mainly on
the ticket counter these days. Please don’t email me stories about how you flew last year and the airline lost your bag or your flight was delayed, or you know someone who flew once and their bag was delayed or you know someone or have heard of someone who knows someone or has heard of someone who may know someone…
It’s unfortunate when delays occur, but we are adults and these things do happen. Before you tell your story anyway (someone always does), please make the distinction between a lost bag and a delayed bag. Better yet, let’s pretend I work at a factory rolling toilet paper onto those little cardboard rolls. Someone has to do it, right?
Personal Blog – NeeksWrite
Author: LimebirdSter
Contact: @Sterby_ – UK Based
Hi, I’m Ster. Short for Esther before you ask.
I studied creative writing at London Met, where my dissertation was the first ten thousand words of an epic fantasy trilogy that is still, three years on, a massive work in progress! Once we graduated, my class and I started up a writers group that meets up every month or two in a pub in North London, and if we’re lucky one in about ten of those meetings might actually involve talking about writing!
I spent a good few years of my life wanting to be a poet, before switching to journalist, and then finally settling on the very unspecific title of fiction writer.
Currently, I spend most of my time when I’m not at work sitting at my desk, where a model Dalek holds my USB stick of Important Writing and threatens me to type faster. I like to read, slowly and less often than I think I should, and, as my newest form of procrastination, I am carefully cultivating an addiction to Words With Friends on my phone which is getting a little out of hand.
Writer/Actor/Mother: LimebirdVanessa
Contact: @VanessaJ2011 – UK Based
Hi, I’m Vanessa, mother of two wonderful children (aged 13 and 10), and I am delighted to be joining the Limebird team!
My writing interests are varied; magazine articles, short stories, poems, screenplays. I have had several things published and have also won and been shortlisted in a few contests. I am currently having my first serious attempt at writing a non-fiction book too. My day job is at a university in the south-east of England, supporting mentoring in schools with students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to realise their academic potential. I also dabble in the world of acting and standup comedy, but don’t have as much time to give to this as I would like.
I don’t have any formal qualifications in writing, but I have learned a few things along the way, and I plan to share some of that on here. I also know I will learn a lot from the other Limebirds, as well as from all you wonderful people who comment on the posts to share your thoughts and ideas.
Personal blog: Vanessa Chapman
Limebird Writer Contributors
These are the Limebirds who contribute to the site occasionally 🙂
Author: LimebirdLizzie
UK Based
Author: LimebirdRaven
Contact: @ravenmarlow – USA Based
I’m Raven Marlow. I’m a mother, a grandmother, a student and a computer geek. I’m also the crazy cat lady down the street. This past year has been rather harrowing for me, and has caused me to re-evaluate my life and take it in a different direction. I’ve clawed, scratched and chewed my way into corporate America, trying to make enough money to live the American Dream: family, car, house, etc. What I mainly got was debt and a loveless marriage. The marriage has ended, my house and car have gone back to the bank and the debt … well anyway you get the idea.
Hi, limebirdsally here. I’ve just had a little girl and by this stage in my life I was supposed to be able to rattle off Chopin’s revolutionary and be earning a living from my published novels, but it seems I forgot to get sign-off on the plan from the universe. The silver lining is I adore my day job as a social research director working for charities and specialising in research with children and young people and I regularly get to speak at conferences and publish social commentary articles in the industry press; I’ve just independently published a couple of tween books and I’m currently working on a new paranormal series for young adults; and if I listen to Barenhoim not only to I get to hear Chopin played exquisitely, but I can eat twiglets without having to worry about smearing marmite all over the piano keys. So ha, the joke’s on you, universe.
I love to smile, laugh, sing, run, write, read, analyse, interpret, imagine, listen to Belle & Sebastian, and when something annoys me, privately let it all out in a short but extremely violent hail of expletives audible only to myself (and sometimes my husband). But most of all I love to help. Oh how I love to give the kind of advice that really gets someone thinking about something in a completely different way. It’s not entirely altruistic – it gives me an enormous sense of wellbeing (come on, you know where that quote’s from and I definitely don’t get that feeling from feeding pigeons – in fact I’d like to shoot the pests that wake me up at dawn with their incessant cooing).
Personal Blog – SallyPanayiotou
Author/Uber Geek: LimebirdSophie
Contact: @JustStatic – UK Based
Greetings, I have been privileged enough to have been invited to write for this wonderful site that is LimeBird. What qualifies me to do this?…well nothing to be perfectly honest I didn’t do a degree in English or anything like that I actually studied graphic design, but I do enjoy writing and that’s what’s really important here isn’t it? Limebird is the perfect place to let my creativity grow and flourish and hopefully learn a thing or two from the other highly gifted writers on the team.
So anyway more about me, well my Mum has always said to me “you’re a jack of all trades, master of none” now this may sound a bit harsh but it’s the truth, I love to read and I love to learn if there is something I don’t know or don’t understand I will go out of my way to learn it even things that may never be useful like “top ten tips when welding steel” or “how to tell the difference between a biscuit and cake”*. I generally will give anything a go to see if I’m any good at it and so over the years have pretty much gained some knowledge about most topics.
So what am I going to write about? Well I’m hoping to talk about a plethora of things such as Tech, Comics, movies, Sci-fi shows, Sci-fi books, gaming and generally the geek counter culture. I may also sneak in a quick post here and there about my geeky cross stitch adventures and maybe even a few paint splattered posts from my attempts at graffiti art/Stencilling.
Anyway I think I’ve rambled enough, I hope you’re all looking forward to my posts as much as I am!
-LimeBirdSophie.
*The difference between a cake and a biscuit may be obvious but in some foods it is not for instance Jaffa cakes. Biscuits when stale go soft, cake when stale goes hard, a Jaffa CAKE goes soft so it is in fact a biscuit!
Limebird Writers 