About me. And how Gift & Curse came about.

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What is it about writers? Ask me to write about the world of Dhascra and the adventures of Mitch

and Dog and you’ve probably lost me for a day or two. Ask me to write about myself and I’m

sitting here, sucking my metaphorical pencil.

Well, I’m Leigh Matthews. I’m married and have two sons and a miniature labradoodle called

Nuala. Having worked for many years in television production, both at ITN and Sky News, I had

to change career due to hearing loss (not great at phones!) and ended up teaching for 18 years

at the very wonderful Christ Church Primary School in Bradford on Avon. The kids I taught were

so supportive and totally matter of fact about my hearing loss and I believe it made them more

reflective about how people with any sort of disability can get on with life. Anyway, I’ve given up

teaching now so that I can concentrate on writing for you. Book 2 is under way and Book 3 is

shaping up very nicely in my head!

I’ve always written. I’ve always loved to escape to other worlds and watch how characters behave or
misbehave. The best days are when their actions have absolutely nothing to do with me. Mitch has reacted
in some situations in ways that I have been astonished by, never mind planned. When he... oh, no... no
spoilers here. Anyway, when he did... what he did, I sat with my mouth open, fingers flying over the
computer keys! Who’d have thought?

The idea of “Gift and Curse” came from a game my younger son, Sean, played when he was about 7 years
old. He and his friend, Alex, would sit on the rug in my living room, clinging to the edges as it apparently soared
through the skies. He called it the “Magic Carpet” game and I visualised Arabian Nights type flying carpets.
However, one day I asked him what the carpets were made of. To my surprise, he said, “Metal.” I hadn’t
expected that. I found myself wondering how metal could fly. Would it be rigid? If not, would it be molten?
How could the pilot communicate his instructions? An ordinary person couldn’t perform magic, so could
there be some way in which the metal and the person could be mentally connected? I started writing “Gift
and Curse” to explore these ideas.