My name is Victoria, but most of my friends and family call me Tori. Feel free to do the same. Born in the shadow of the black mountains in Wales, I now live by the sea in the south-east of England with my husband, Kelly, a degu named Joshua, a chinchilla named Mollie, and a West Highland White Terrier named Lilie. Having battled with glaucoma since birth, I now find myself completely blind. But I haven’t let that stop me from chasing the dream I've had since I was a young child: the dream of becoming a published author. I've loved to read and write since I learned how, and always wanted to get my work published. Finally, in 2012, I made that dream come true by self-publishing the first of my books as an eBook via Smashwords. Several more titles have been published since, with paperbacks and audio books also being made available. So now I’m a published author of several poetry collections, as well as a long list of children’s stories. I’m just as happy exercising the logical side of my brain as the creative side of it, so would describe myself as a combination of Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books: Hermione’s thirst for knowledge and love of books, combined with Luna’s wandering mind and alternative way of looking at the world. A couple of people have agreed with that description of me, so I feel I'm justified in using it. When I’m not lost in my own world, you’re most likely to find me either reading, writing, or attempting to keep my eMails from piling up. If I’m not doing any of those things, chances are I’m spending time with my hubby and furkids. Either that, or taking some time to explore some of my other interests, such as knitting, Dungeons And Dragons style roleplaying games, music, brainteaser puzzles, movies, baking, history, science, astronomy, and a few other things that randomly capture my attention from time to time. I also love almost anything to do with animals and nature. I have to say "almost" because I'm not too keen on spiders and creepy crawly things, though can pretend they don't exist if they don't come too close to me. My favourite animals are cats, dogs, rodents, and horses, though I generally get all soppy over just about any four-legged animal; especially young ones. That love of animals was a huge factor in my choice to become a vegetarian, as it's hard to enjoy a meal when you feel sorry for it.
