Hi, you’ve reached the blog of authors Belinda Mellor and Teresa Bassett. In geographical terms we couldn’t be further apart, with Belinda in Motupiko, New Zealand and Teresa in Cornwall’s “Clay Country”, England – but in terms of what matters, we stand side by side, sharing a passion for writing, animals, cookery and the natural world.

We met over a decade ago via our international writing group Scribophile, although it’s not impossible we met half a century earlier as Belinda spent many wonderful childhood holidays in Cornwall.

Having become friends through a mutual admiration of each other’s writing, we discovered we had lots of other interests in common, and, more importantly, shared similar values. And that’s where the idea for this blog was born – we want to go on sharing our thoughts, ideas and writing with each other and with lots of new friends.

Two writers.
Both of us are hopelessly addicted to writing and have been as long as we can remember. 
And we both have literary awards to encourage us to keep going whenever the going gets tough.

Belinda Mellor

For some reason I can no longer remember, I trained as a secondary school teacher after gaining my theology degree (in England). But writing has always been my passion. I was lucky enough to be able to work in a theatre-in-education company in Ireland for several years and do other writing-related jobs. Nowadays I live on a lifestyle block in New Zealand, after we arrived on holiday nine years ago and forgot to go home. I have two novels published: Silvana – the Greening, and Silvana – the Turning and I am currently working on a YA Irish faerie story. In between writing and feeding chickens, I edit for other writers. It’s a good life.

Find out more at: www.silvana.belindamellor.com

Teresa Bassett

My grandfather used to call me “the only soldier in step”, a reference to my (no doubt annoying) habit of ignoring all common sense and doing things my way. This surely explains my addiction to writing, a career choice involving regular disappointment and frustration, but with the magical bonus of being allowed to spend a lot of time in worlds I can control.

In the so-called real world, I’ve worked variously as tour guide for the Eden Project, translator and foreign languages teacher. Meanwhile I’ve been included in a wide range of anthologies and magazines, and have had four Young Adult novels and a collection of short stories published under the banner of Authors Reach:

The Time Crystals – a young adult time travel adventure for readers of nine and above.

Flight of the Bluebird – the second instalment in the Time Crystals series.

The Mystery of Acorn Academy – a mystery adventure for readers of ten and above.

Tell And You Die – a suspense novel for readers of thirteen and above.

Ten Twisty Tales – a collection of young adult suspense stories.

Sign up for my monthly author newsletter and receive a free suspense short story as a welcome gift!

Find out more at: www.teresabassett.co.uk