First Post

It seems that Blogging is the thing to do these days if you're an up-and-coming writer, so here I am. Whether this lasts or dies a death over the summer, only time will tell ! For those who are wondering, I'm an English independent scholar (ie. I am not attached to an academic institution), female, and living in Oxford. I have a "day job" working as a proof-reader/editor for a company that specialises in mystery shopping (Definition: the collection of information from retail outlets, showrooms etc, by people posing as ordinary members of the public). It's not a very exciting or well-paid job, but it is flexible, which means I also have time to write. So what does this independent scholar write about ? Currently, I write about fantasy fiction: Tolkien, J K Rowling, Juliet E McKenna, Philip Pullman, Robin McKinley, Lynn Flewelling, Garth Nix, Robin Hobb, Jan Siegel, Patricia McKillip to name but a few. (Don't ask me why so many of these women have "McK" surnames, I assure you I'm not collecting them or selecting them for that reason !)

In the past, I've also written about poetry and history of the First World War - the essays that I've written (for my degree) on these topics can be found on my Counter-Attack website - but during the final semester of my English and History degree (which I completed in 2001), I wrote a paper on gender issues in J K Rowling's Harry Potter books and it was accepted for publication in an academic journal; since then I've been writing about my favourite genre of fantasy fiction. At present I'm working on a paper for a collection of essays on fantasy fiction, after which I shall be writing a paper on wizards for a Casebook being published in the US - and in between times I'm doing background reading for a study on fantasy heroines (which won't be written/finished until Ms Rowling completes her series since the Harry Potter books will make up one of the chapters).

Anyway, I think I've wittered on enough for one day...

Michele