Kelsey Drake

Kelsey Drake is in fact two people – Sue Brownless and Eleanor Patrick. Both authors live in Northumberland and met by chance at an evening class. Discovering a common interest in the mix of reality and fantasy, they started sparking ideas off each other and suddenly found themselves researching and writing about the dragons of East Lothian in Scotland.

“Kelsey Drake is our pen name. We chose it because it’s easier to have one of anything instead of two. Two can get muddling, and anyway it’s fun making up names. Kelsey means ‘of the water’ and Drake means ‘dragon’ – pretty neat for a book about dragons who live underground in caverns carved near the sewers. We don’t have a picture of Kelsey Drake but this is what we look like in case you meet us near Traprain Law talking with Scordril.”

Kelsey Drake is in fact two people – Sue Brownless and Eleanor Patrick. We both live in Northumberland and met by chance at an evening class. Discovering a common interest in mixing reality and fantasy in novels, we started sparking ideas off each other and suddenly found ourselves researching and writing about the dragons of East Lothian in Scotland.

Sue

Sue: “I used to create stories in my head to tell people at school without bothering to write them down. I remember getting into trouble for distracting the others! After school I studied accountancy at Northumbria University in Newcastle, trained and worked for several years as an accountant, and an ‘internal auditor’ in business – better, as there were more words than numbers and I got to write reports! Finally, I decided it was time to focus on my writing. Since then, I’ve had short stories and poems published, even won something, joined a writing group, read my work in public and gained an MA in Creative Writing from Northumbria University. Amongst all this, I met Eleanor. When not at the keyboard I enjoy gardening (or at least looking at it), watching aircraft and keeping an eye open for dragons!”

Eleanor

Eleanor: “I started writing stories in primary school and still have a short one that my mum kept! When I left school I studied Spanish and German at Hull University. I taught at a secondary school for a few years before taking up my pen (which gradually morphed into a computer!) while bringing up my three children. I wrote articles for magazines, and also loads of puzzles for those booklets you see on the news stands, until I decided to write an adult novel for an MA course at Manchester University. It was after this that I moved to Northumberland and met Sue. I now work as a children’s counsellor, edit a journal, play music, explore the fantastic countryside up here and read, read, read… as well as write, of course!”