Elizabeth Stokes was born in Surrey, UK and moved with her family to Loughborough when she was three. Despite being diagnosed with dyslexia when she was young, Elizabeth always had a love of reading and writing.
As a teenager she found like-minded friends who helped her turn a love for literature into a talent for writing; practising writing short stories and bouncing ideas off each other.
“I would advise anyone who wants to become a writer to make friends with pedants. They won’t let you get away with a single apostrophe out of place. I would find myself trying to remember everything they pointed out to me from the last thing they read. It’s a steep learning curve but it’s a valuable one.”
Her first book was written firstly to be a NaNoWriMo piece and so was only meant to be 50,000 words long, but she hit the 50,000 word mark and was still going. The book ended up being three years in the making – mainly because she stopped writing and then returned to the work – finding it good enough to keep and work on again.
“I never delete work, not till I have come back to it once, as your tastes can change over time. Most get deleted, or in fact give inspiration to other people. Just because you can’t write a story doesn't means someone else can’t, it just means it’s not your story to write. But I knew Second Born was different.
“I started with the first scene. A man running through a field in torrential rain, and I built on it from there. When I came back to re-read the pages I had written, I thought; ‘This is good, this is worth carrying on with’. So I got out some wine, thought about where it had been left while I sipped a glass and then just started typing again. I would say that Second Born was my story to write, but the first time I started writing it wasn't the right time, two years later was the right time.”
The Last Line first discovered her as the publisher, Arkwright, knew Elizabeth from years ago, and when she was looking for people to give the first few chapters a read through, he offered to publish it. The two of them have now been working together for the last couple of years with the other authors of The Last Line, touring the conventions and working to make the brand more known to the world.
“It’s really an amazing opportunity, not only to do what so many wish they could do and get their books published, but to do it while working with a friend at the same time. I love working conventions, even though I'm always exhausted at the end of the day because I put so much into working with the people and talking to the crowd. All I want to do afterwards is soak in a bath and order pizza!”
“2015 is going to be a great year for me – with the release of my book and attending more conventions – I can see this year being the best yet.”
As a teenager she found like-minded friends who helped her turn a love for literature into a talent for writing; practising writing short stories and bouncing ideas off each other.
“I would advise anyone who wants to become a writer to make friends with pedants. They won’t let you get away with a single apostrophe out of place. I would find myself trying to remember everything they pointed out to me from the last thing they read. It’s a steep learning curve but it’s a valuable one.”
Her first book was written firstly to be a NaNoWriMo piece and so was only meant to be 50,000 words long, but she hit the 50,000 word mark and was still going. The book ended up being three years in the making – mainly because she stopped writing and then returned to the work – finding it good enough to keep and work on again.
“I never delete work, not till I have come back to it once, as your tastes can change over time. Most get deleted, or in fact give inspiration to other people. Just because you can’t write a story doesn't means someone else can’t, it just means it’s not your story to write. But I knew Second Born was different.
“I started with the first scene. A man running through a field in torrential rain, and I built on it from there. When I came back to re-read the pages I had written, I thought; ‘This is good, this is worth carrying on with’. So I got out some wine, thought about where it had been left while I sipped a glass and then just started typing again. I would say that Second Born was my story to write, but the first time I started writing it wasn't the right time, two years later was the right time.”
The Last Line first discovered her as the publisher, Arkwright, knew Elizabeth from years ago, and when she was looking for people to give the first few chapters a read through, he offered to publish it. The two of them have now been working together for the last couple of years with the other authors of The Last Line, touring the conventions and working to make the brand more known to the world.
“It’s really an amazing opportunity, not only to do what so many wish they could do and get their books published, but to do it while working with a friend at the same time. I love working conventions, even though I'm always exhausted at the end of the day because I put so much into working with the people and talking to the crowd. All I want to do afterwards is soak in a bath and order pizza!”
“2015 is going to be a great year for me – with the release of my book and attending more conventions – I can see this year being the best yet.”