Meet the Author

One of my earliest passions - along with drawing and dogs and reading - was writing. I would write stories, illustrate them, and sew them up into little booklets. I always enjoyed the letter-writing that other children regarded as a chore.

I was encouraged at home, and was given an amazing present when I was about nine years old. It was an old-fashioned - very old-fashioned! - portable typewriter. It was very similar to this one dating from 1915, and as I look at it I can feel the magical, clunky keys under my fingers!

I savoured the inky, musty, smell of it, the joy of being able to type in red, the way the keys would all jam if you went too fast, and had to be carefully untangled. Fiddling with carbon paper and learning how to erase without rubbing a hole in the paper (“Erasing: what’s that?” I hear you ask, you children of the computer age!). I had to clean the keys with a toothbrush and a pin, to remove the ribbon fluff from the little shapes of the e’s and d’s.

It was my pride and joy, and lots (mostly nonsense) was written on it.

I can clearly remember sitting down at the table in the Morning Room, carefully feeding a sheet of paper in, typing CHAPTER 1 in the centre, then … staring at the blank page, not knowing what to write next.

I expected words to come, as usual, but there was a puzzling absence of them. Clearly calling it Chapter 1 was intimidating!

My mother leaned over my shoulder and asked, “What’s your book going to be about?”

“People,” I said - prophetically.

And that’s what I’ve now written.

Passion

It was a long time before I came back to complete a novel. I had written magazine stories, and started a novel many years ago which never got beyond about 20 thousand words then died the death.

What I was lacking was a driving force, a passion.

At Art School, a Tutor had remarked about an able student whose work was scattered and without focus, “Needs a reason to paint.”

So true! Without the passion, no amount of craft or technique will fill the void.

And my passion to write got a kickstart when I found out how much I could help people change their attitude to their dogs! I saw the results in my classes and knew I had to get this information out of my head and onto paper for all to be able to access. I want everyone to find out a better way of interacting with their dogs without blame or shame.

So I started out on my Brilliant Family Dog series of how-to books for dog-owners. When I published the first four, I truly thought it would be years before I got my investment in the paid editor back, never mind recompense for my time and expertise! But I was proven wrong, as happily this series took off in popularity, and together with the other five books that followed still maintain high positions in the dog-book charts at Amazon.

Nothing succeeds like success!

Buoyed up by the popularity and effectiveness of my writing - as evidenced by the many hundreds of 5* reviews at Amazon, as well as the emails of thanks I get regularly - I revisited my early plan of writing fiction.

This time I had a driving force! I had a passion! Years of experiencing life and observing others brought me my story. And it also brought me to becoming a Life Coach.

I set about the project in my usual way: learning how to craft it, then developing it slowly and painfully. I discovered the joy of revision - something I had feared while I was in the first draft. I discovered the enormous value of having a book coach to work with. And finally, using my experience from publishing the Brilliant Family Dog books - got it into print!

Now you can enjoy Keeping Tabs: A Women’s Fiction Novel of Doubt, Dogs, and Determination (Dilemmas and Discovery, Book 1), in ebook and in paperback.

Go give it a whirl!

You can read the first chapter here

And after you’ve enjoyed Keeping Tabs, you can go right ahead and jump into Seeking Clarity: A Women’s Fiction Novel of Children, Career, and Creativity (Dilemmas and Discovery, Book 2)

Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the next novel … There’s no stopping me now, even without the dusty, inky smell of yesteryear. 

Beverley Courtney
BA (Hons), CPC, ELI-MP, CBATI, CAP2, MAPDT, ABTC Registered Animal Trainer