About
My Story
L.E. Luttrell was born in Sydney, Australia and spent the first 21 years of her life there before moving to the UK. After working in publishing for a few years she trained as a teacher and from the 90s spent many years working in secondary education, although she’s had numerous other part time jobs.
How I started Writing
Stories have always been a passion of mine. As an avid reader, I always have one or two books on the go. With an active imagination from as far back as I can remember, I have always made up stories. Sometimes my imagination has translated itself to the written page (via the computer) – other times it remains in my head. I regularly have long distance driving experiences both in Australia (journeys in Australia to visit friends and family can routinely cover 4,000 or more kilometres) and the UK, so I often make up different stories to pass the time.
In the 90s, frustrated that I could not find interest level appropriate books for struggling teenage readers, I wrote short scary Australian wildlife stories for young people I worked with in literacy groups. They loved the stories and it motivated the groups to read, but I did nothing about attempting to have them published, despite their encouragement that I should. I didn’t consider it a viable option.
In 2004 while spending a year in Australia, I wrote two full length manuscripts – one for young adults, one for adults. They were only in draft form and I planned to work on them when I returned to the UK. But a few nights after returning to London, the house I was living in was burgled and my laptop and handbag were stolen. In my handbag I had the only back up copy of the work – in my first ever memory stick that was shaped a bit like a pen. Once I returned to my teaching work, finding the time to start a new manuscript proved difficult.
In 2016, after completing yet another house renovation, I decided I needed a break from hard physical work and started writing a story that had been in my head for some years. I haven’t stopped writing or editing my stories since.