Hi, I’m Cat! A Yorkshire Writer and Writing Coach who lives on the wrong on the wrong side of t’hill in Stalybridge, Manchester, with my wedding-phobic fiancé (we’ve been engaged over a decade) and a particularly stubborn Westie aptly named Hugo The Destroyer.
I released my debut novel – In Lies We Trust – in March 2021 less than a year after leaving my Museum Educator role during the Coronavirus pandemic to live the dream and commit to being a writer and coach ‘full-time’ (though in reality I only work part-time). My first publication was a short story collection in 2018 – The Memorial Tree – which featured short stories that first appeared in Woman’s Weekly and others that placed in competitions. In the same year another story was published in a Comma Press anthology; Short Stories by New Manchester Writers (Book 9).
I’ve always loved writing and my imagination is definitely my favourite trait, but I only returned to writing seriously when I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalitis (M.E) in 2009. For a short while I was housebound, and the only thing that kept me sane was my rescue Westie (Mac) and the stories I could make up in my head. I’m a big advocate of writing for mental health purposes too, as my passion for fiction helped get me through my second chronic illness diagnosis of Fibroymyalgia in 2011.
I’ve tried my hand at many things, including being a blogger for Manchester Literature Festival, being short-listed, and then winning Writing Magazine competitions and, more recently, a feature in Mslexia. I’m also an active committee member for the Huddersfield Literature Festival (my hometown), and am also Secretary for the Partition Education Group – where I advocate for including South Asian History in schools, as well decolonising the UK curriculum.
In 2019 I started a Writer Support Page on Facebook under the name The Write Catalyst. This is where I promote challenges, activities, and motivational writing tips for aspiring authors to become the writers they know they want to be! By August 2020 I decided to take the plunge into supporting writers, and my own writing, and I left my job to be a Writer and Writing Coach – The Write Catalyst. Find out more here.
Fun Fact: I can also read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Find her on Twitter: @Cat_Lumb
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Why I started…
“I want to be a writer: ideally a published writer. But I want to be able to write. No matter what I do, I always seem to fall short – I plan to write a lot, I have numerous ideas and possibilities jotted down in various random places, but recording more than that always seems like a struggle.
So, here is a record of that struggle – to spur me on, to guilt me into writing, to find out where I am going wrong.
At the very least, I want to know I tried. At the end of everyday I would much prefer to say ‘I tried and failed’ rather than ‘I didn’t even bother’.”
July 2013
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If you want to know more about how I restarted my journey to become a writer, check out my blog post:
~ The long winding journey of how to be a writer ~