When I was about twelve, I took a mental trip to Never Never Land. Unfortunately, I already had a mental age of about thirty, so it didn't really work...

I am quiet, thoughtful, and slightly crazy.

A few more adjectives: determined, loyal, good sense of humour, workaholic, intense, mostly happy, quixotic yet cynical, grammatical, kind, open-minded, creative.

...but no list of words will ever fully capture a personality. We can only ever approximate it, and perhaps another person's associations to those words will create something very different as they read. Stupid self-summaries.

I'm a student by day, children's writer by night.

Although my profile says I'm in Sheffield, I'm in Cambridge about half the year, at university. I study English Literature, although I'm kind of ambivalent to the course and Literature on the whole, if I'm honest... I'd much sooner re-read Harry Potter any day (although I recently discovered that Harry Potter does class as children's literature!)!

I've recently discovered that I have some kind of weird complex about the word 'literature'. I automatically class any book that I dislike as 'literature' while the others are not 'literature'. I think it's because I see myself as a genre writer and there's some real rivalry between genre and literature, though the boundaries are murky. If Harry Potter is 'children's literature', does Twilight also tick the box? It's in my college's library, like Harry Potter... What about Jacquiline Wilson? It's all so confusing...

Next year, I'm hoping to do a dissertation on fantasy and children's literature, so hopefully I might find some of the answers I'm looking for. I'll probably just get more confused...

Moving swiftly on from that, hopefully uni will pay off in the end and I'll get a decent job, even if I still don't really know in what (teaching? publishing?)...

I dream of being published (as rich as J.K. Rowling!), but though I'll never give up working on that, I know better than to expect that it'll happen any time soon.

Writing, I hope. I have three complete novels, and I'm currently working editing up the third one to submit hopefully at some point next year. Other than the 'finished' ones, I have various works in progress, and sadly, a few abandoned ones... I write mainly children's fantasy, although I've experimented in other genres. I like the escapism. :)

I'm also reasonably good at drawing, playing videogames (mostly Nintendo!), and playing acoustic guitar. The latter has fallen out of practice somewhat of late, but I like to make noise every now and then...

Good question. I suppose you can tell me that!

I've heard from more than one source that my dominant characteristic is kindness, although maybe they were just being nice.

Books: Anything by Garth Nix, Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman), lots of other children's fantasy novels...
Suppose I'd better put some Literature too: Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), Philip Larkin, Thomas Hardy, Milton (Paradise Lost), Austen, Brontes, Shakespeare...and plenty more.
I like reading.

Movies: Lord of the Rings, SpiderMan, Star Wars, Cloverfield, anime films, Disney and other cute cartoons (like the Swan Princess).

TV Shows: CSI, Simpsons, Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, Waterloo Road, Family Guy, Pokemon and other anime, Peep Show, IT Crowd, My Family, other comedies, children's TV shows...

Music: Avril Lavigne, James Blunt, musicals (Les Miserables, Moulin Rouge, Rent). Hmm, I'm kind of useless when it comes to music/musical knowledge. I usually like something without knowing what it is... I suppose I like indie, folk, some rock, some more classical stuff... hmm...

Food: I have a quite varied palate (particularly like spicy foods), and I'm always happy to try new things. :) The weirdest thing I've eaten to date was a fish-eye...
As for drinks, I'm a jolly good tea drinker, wot wot!

I'm not a very materialistic person, so I don't think there's anything I could 'never' do without (other than the basic requirements for life, of course). Things that would be most difficult to give up would be:

1. My writing. I love Byron's quote, "if I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad."

2. Love. I'm something of a hopeless Romantic, even as my cynicism attempts to pull me away from it.

3. My friends. I'm very loyal and would do anything for them.

4. My mind. I wouldn't be me without it.

5. Books. I love reading.

6. My laptop.

I find that writers are very fluid things and I spend a lot of time questioning exactly what I am... Particularly because I seem to have some characteristics that are quite conflicting. Most of the time, I appear shy and reserved, although every now and again I'll do something slightly mad on impulse. I appear sweet and innocent when I feel quite evil. Yes. Who am I? It's a song from Les Mis, but unlike Jean Valjean, I don't have it figured out yet. Maybe one day I'll have an epiphany.

Anyway, if all that sounds rather egocentric, I suppose I muse quite a lot about human nature and the various things that come with it: love, meaning, death, interaction with others. It comes as part of the package when studying a Literature degree.

Otherwise, I have lots of random bits of junk in my head. I know most of Hamlet's 'To be, or not to be' speech, and for some unknown reason, I also know the introduction to The Wild Thornberrys by heart, 'Hi, my name's Eliza Thornberry, part of your average family...'

I'm up for trying most things at least once, although I have a few random limits. Like drugs including alcohol and cigarettes are a no go... Drinking alcohol is a weird one. I'm still not entirely sure where I stand with it. The problem is mostly that I don't like the taste. I don't like fizzy drinks, which rules out a lot of alcoholic drinks...I suppose I could drink something like vodka in orange, but then I'd just be drinking to get drunk...and I don't see the point in that. I firmly believe I can have just as much fun without alcohol, and I feel loath to do something just to 'fit in'. And I'm probably a control freak. And I like to remember everything. ^_^ ...although I don't have an excuse when I do crazy things!

you're a fairly confident person, you're not *too* tall, and you're looking for adventure. Oh, and you're interested in finding long term relationships, rather than casual sex. A cute face and glasses are always a plus. :)

Oh, or if you're Mr Darcy or another Austen hero... :)