After a career as a publicist and marketer, helping hundreds of clients grow through PR and Marketing campaigns, I became an award-winning businesswoman (see my awards below), an online entrepreneur, woman's ambassador, speaker, freelance writer and an author.
I am the author of Create A Successful Website and Pimp My Site. Both books reached bestselling status on Amazon and stayed there for a long time.
I also co-founded the award-winning iHubbub.com, a free online shop for freelancers, authors and home business entrepreneurs to sell their products or services online. And Remote Employment, an online job board that connects home workers with people who want to work from home.
LifeLong Dream
At eighteen, I decided I was going to write the stories in my head. However, life got in the way. After raising my son, getting divorced, later meeting and marrying the most wonderful, supportive, dedicated man and then suddenly realizing I had turned 50 (!), I decided that the time had come to get one of my novels published. Soon after, a highly exciting move, to Spain, enabled me to fulfil my lifelong dream - to be a novelist. Here, at last, I have my very own writing room which has the most incredible view.
I have 6 more novels that I have written during my training (see below) waiting in the wings to see the light of day.
To help my own writing career, I started U Self-Publish, an online portal for promoting self-published authors and offering self-publishing advice.
As an aspiring novelist, I am obsessive about learning how to write great fiction.
Writing Awards
I received an ‘Honourable Mention’ in the 75th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition for two of my novels, Shadow Hunter and The Knowing.
The editor of Writer's Digest said: “This year’s contest attracted close to 19,000 entries. Your success in the face of such formidable competition speaks highly of your writing talent, and should be a source of great pride as you continue in your writing career. I congratulate you on your achievement and wish you the best of luck in your future writing.”
I was also nominated as WRITER of the MONTH in January 2007 on literaryagentshowcase.com.
Bob Thompson from The Literary Agent Showcase said: “We would like to congratulate you on becoming WRITER of the MONTH for January 2007 on literaryagentshowcase.com. All of us here at the Showcase were quite taken with your concept and writing style.”
Raindance International Film Festival judged my script, The Knowing, as “commercial ... entertaining ... will attract a lot of interest.”
Writing Training
Some authors become an overnight success, but their training may have been ongoing for many years. Mine started at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, in 2000 where I studied Creative writing.
In February 2001, I attended a Weekend Scriptwriting Masterclass on the Isle of Wight with Julian Friedman.
Another Weekend Masterclass was Writing Hot Scripts in June 2002 in London and also Character Development with Laurie Hutzler, UCLA. I enoyed Laurie Hutzler’s training so much I was back for more the following year in May with a screenwriters' workshop on how to Write a Sizzling Thriller. My killer-thriller instincts were born!
Next up was Script Development from January to March 2005 in London with The Script Factory. The ‘Lo to No Budget Film Making’ tutored by Elliot Grove attracted my attention and off I trotted to London on the 16 and 17 March 2005. Still keen on film making, I spent a weekend finding out how to be ‘The Producer’ with Carl Schoenfeld in 19 March 2005. Two weekends in a row! Mad keen or what?
On the 19 and 20th July 2005 I was at it again with Arista Development learning about Film Sales and Marketing with Mia Bays and various speakers. Not long afterwards, I trekked down to the Isle of Wight for the IOW Writers Conference, where I did another Weekend Masterclass in October 2005.
One HUGE highlight of my ‘learning how to write’ career, was taking the plunge in May 2006 and flying off to the Cannes Film Festival in France. What an experience! That followed with Experimental Film Making between October and December 2006 at OFVM in Oxford. Soon after that, I was awarded a bursary to do a Director's Course in March 2007.
It didn’t all stop there - ever since I have been studying the art of writing by reviewing books, which can be seen on my site U Self-Publish [http://uselfpublish.com].
And in 2015 I completed a few online writing courses, including 'Writing for Children' and 'Writing Young Adult Fiction' and I attended Steve Alcorn's the Self-Publishing Academy. After I have devoured a writing resource book, I review them on U Self Publish to share the wealth of knowledge from some great writing tutors.
Some of my favourites include: James Scott Bell, Angela Ackerman, Rayne Hall, Victoria Lynn Schmidt, Giselle Green, Jodie Renner, Jeff Gerke, Linda Edelstein, Jessica Page Morrell, Gloria Kempton and Jack Hickman, amongst many more.
If you’re a writer and like me has a thirst for learning, so you can improve your writing, take a look at my favourite writing books on http://uselfpublish.com. With all the details above, I am sure you can see that I am a compulsive obsessive: writing!
Business Awards
I was thrilled to win Karen Darby as my mentor for 6 months - wow, what a ride! Karen is an amazing woman. Through the same awards, I was lucky enough to get to know another incredible Karen - Karen Hanton, who kindly wrote the foreword for Pimp My Site.
See Paula's Business Awards Album.
As Co-Founder of Remote Employment I was nominated in the Top 100 Companies in the Barclays Trading Places Award and I won the Runners-Up for the Enterprise Challenge in the 2009 Enterprising Women Awards.
The moment I "won" Karen Darby as my mentor!
Paula In The News
I have been featured on Sky News, Radio 2 and numerous BBC radio stations. I was also featured in The Independent on Sunday, Financial Times, The Guardian, Red Magazine, Berkshire Life, Country Life, Start Your Own Business, People Today, People Management, OnRec, Management Today, Country Living, Pay Monthly and Financial Mail, along with numerous regional and local publications across the country. I have also been on the morning TV breakfast shows a couple of times to discuss various topics.
I am often asked to comment on BBC Radio and I give talks at seminars across the UK. My husband and I were also featured on both BBC and ITV for the Mumford and Sons ticket scam in Portsmouth. Although it was a huge let-down not to see Mumford at Portsmouth due to the ticket scam, it all turned out FAB because my hubby proposed to me when we finally got to see Mumford at the O2 in London!
My hubby and I were also featured on the BBC Show, Escape to the Continent, which showed our quest to live in Spain (so I can write full time!).
I have to admit a little cheat here = PR is my background so what do you expect? Of course, I am going to get my interests into the media at every possible opportunity!
Here are some news clippings of me in the news: https://www.pinterest.com/paulagracewynne/paula-in-the-news/