In her later years, Grandma and I shared a communication over our mutual interest in the writing of stories. She was quite hard on herself as I recall, and I think often judged herself by the standards of others. She eventually decided for herself - not all that long ago - that she wasn't that good and stopped pursuing it - which is a shame. I blame her writer's group!

She was a very intelligent reader and in hindsight perhaps it seemed a little lowbrow to get her Stephen King's On Writing! She promptly went and bought his first novel Carrie, to see what all the fuss was about - which I certainly would not have recommended to her if I'd have had the chance! She told me she thought it was quite good up until the point that supernatural powers got involved, which she stridently proclaimed as CHEATING.

Going by her own words on the matter, I think Grandma had a strong sensibility for the real world, and I think anything to do with fantasy wasn't her cup of tea at all - a genre which happened to be my forte! Thankfully this was a good excuse to avoid her requests to read any of my own stories, which were not always grandmother-friendly...

Judging by what has been said on her on this site, and our own recollections, Grandma was simultaneously both very grounded and pragmatic, and yet also highly creative, not least with her embroidery. I would have liked to see where her writing would have taken her, had she - as I feel she would have done eventually, after the temporary 'giving up' familiar to every writer - found another impulse to continue.