Look and Listen

Biography

Born in North London in 1970. Maria is a qualified solicitor, most recently specialising in Conveyancing. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1996, Maria specialised in Family Law, dealing mainly with domestic violence injunctions, and this led to the inspiration for her second novel, in which one of the characters is a victim of domestic violence. She has had a varied career, in her twelve years working as a solicitor, also working in the fields of Criminal Law, Immigration, Wills and Probate and Litigation. She is the author of 'Coincidences' 2001, the dramatic story of a young girl looking for her father; and 'A Time to Tell' 2006, a family saga/romantic drama spanning 50 years and three generations of the same family. Maria has recently finished work on a short story collection 'Pieces of a Rainbow' due to be published in August 2009. Maria has also written a third novel 'Second Chances' which is currently being edited; she hopes to publish that next year. A further collection of her short stories is due to be published towards the end of this year. She lives in London.

Inspiration

Maria has always loved reading. On her first day at school, she could already read, so she was moved up a year. By the age of 7 she had read most of the books in her school library. Her love of reading led to her love of writing. Her favourite authors include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Paulo Coelho, Maeve Binchy, and Marian Keyes. She decided to write her first novel 'Coincidences', after losing her job in 1997 and being out of work for a few months. Having always been an avid reader, Maria enjoyed creative writing from a young age, always choosing the creative writing option rather than the factual essay in her English exams at school! Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist', was a big influence, and one of the reasons Maria wanted to become a writer, and in particular, to write novels. Maria is constantly being inspired by writers of any genre (including poets and songwriters), old and new, and by the world and people around her.