Wordmate's Page

The Life and Times of Wordmate, a.k.a. Mary Cook

I didn't set out to be a writer - didn't want to be anything really. I just wanted to earn my living in as painless a way as possible. For that reason, my career has been more plaid than merely checkered.

I was raised on the south coast of England. When I left school in the 1950s there were few opportunities open to girls. I took a variety of jobs ranging from lab technician through school grounds keeper to folk singer. In the meantime, I wrote for publication on odd occasions as a paying hobby and even took a correspondence course in creative writing. I took to it like a vampire to warm blood, seizing every opportunity to write horror stories and poems with varying degrees of success.

Paid writing assignments followed and I became a spoof agony aunt for an adult newspaper.

Some years later I was taken on as an editorial assistant for the main regional newspaper in my area. I was soon promoted to trainee reporter and at 52 years of age became the oldest "cub reporter" in the business.

My articles, short stories and poems have appeared in numerous publications, both in print and online. My main writing interests are humor, horror, self-sufficient living, and the writing craft.

I live in the rural county of Lincolnshire with my husband Nick, our adored Border terrier Brucie and cat Lotus.

		Brucie	Lotus

Nick and I both became Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists in 1991 and in 1998, some 26 years after our civil wedding in England we were married in our faith at our Head Temple in the foothills of Mount Fuji, Japan, where we make an annual pilgrimage.

It was on our homeward journey from one of these pilgrimages that I bought a copy of the Tokyo-based Hiragana Times which was advertising for overseas correspondents. I was hired by the publication to write for it part-time while still working at my newspaper job in the UK. At the age of 58 I retired from journalism to return to freelance writing.

My e-books, Top Tips to Enjoy Your Retirement and Top Tips to Please Your Partner are available at www.toptipsto.com and some of my other work can be viewed via the following links: http://www.romanceeverafter.com/star_in_your_own_romance.htm http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writesuccess/message/139 www.writelink.co.uk

Scene In Our Garden