First book for resort mum

‘Don’t wait until you’re 62 to pick up a pen.”

That’s according to Grange Park mum and writer Elizabeth M Price, who has just published her first novel, Choices.

She says she wishes she had taken the plunge earlier in life and pursued her writing passion.

And now she is on a mission to prove anybody has the ability to write – that it is not the preserve of the highly educated or upper classes.

Elizabeth says seeing her words in print was the second best feeling she has had in life, after the birth of her children.

She said: “Growing up on Grange Park, being housed as a single parent on Convent Crescent, my head was filled with stories.

“Sadly, it was also filled with a certainty that writers were highly educated, exalted beings who breathed different air to me.

“That was wrong... writers are ordinary people from all walks of life with a story to tell.

“To those people who feel they have a story to tell, don’t be intimidated like I was.

“Take the plunge; tell your story, tell it in your own style.

“Joining the local library is a great way to start, read anything that takes your fancy; get the feel for how a story is structured.

“Give yourself permission to write 200 words, even if you think they are rubbish; then write another 200 words, then another.

“When you feel ready, let someone you trust read your work or join a writing group, you might be pleasantly surprised by the feedback you receive.

“Though I’m not sure what my English teacher at Claremont Secondary School For Girls, Miss Griffiths, would have made of my literary efforts.”

Elizabeth left Blackpool in 1992, to work and travel with her husband Andrew.

They now divide their time between New Zealand, Cyprus and the UK.

Choices – published by Austin Macauley – tells the story of Earth, who grows up in a strict religious community and can no longer see her future as being with the older man to whom she is betrothed.

She leaves in secret, knowing she will never come back, and stows away on a luxurious empty yacht – where her adventures begin.

Elizabeth added: “You can take the girl out of Blackpool, but you can’t take Blackpool out of the girl.

“My book Choices is gritty, fun and ultimately uplifting.

“It may be set in New Zealand but at heart, like me, it’s pure Blackpool.”

* Choices by Elizabeth M Price is available in bookshops and on Amazon.