Elaina James

All week my team have been on tender hooks, nervously awaiting their exam results.  Watching their anxious expressions and desperate attempts to distract themselves from wondering if they have passed or failed, brought back memories of waiting for my own exam results, a few years ago when I was training to become a professional accountant. The lead up to any results day is never fun.  Of course when you pass, the elation and relief is undeniably wonderful, emphasised by the level of fear experienced beforehand.  The most memorable day for me was back in 2004, the day the results were announced I was on a family holiday.  We were in the midst of a driving holiday around western Canada at the time.  We began our trip in Calgary, and headed through the Canadian Rockies, through Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Wells Gray Provincial Park, before heading on to Vancouver and Victoria.  It was an amazing trip (which I will post on my travel blog soon), but it wasn't exactly the

My favorite book as a child was White Boots by Noel Streatfeild.  Nine year old Harriet Johnson is advised to take up skating to aid her recovery from an illness that has left her thin and weak.  At the ice rink she is befriended by Lalla Moore, a young girl with figure skating in her blood.  Despite being from completely different classes, they form an unusual but undeniably strong friendship.  With Lallas' help, Harriet discovers that she actually posses the talent to become an exceptional skater herself, possibly even better than Lalla.  Revelations like that however, can put a strain on any friendship... A few years ago I managed to track down a copy of this book and re-read it.  I discovered that despite the passing of time since I first read it, it had lost none of it's charm.  It's a heart warming tale that I love as much today, as I did all those years ago. When I was a child, I was desperate to be like Harriet and take to the ice like she did.  The notion of gl

Hello.  I’m Elaina and I love to write.  Okay so you kind of expected me to say that, given this blog is mostly going to be about my writing (and books I love to read), nevertheless it’s still true.  I was the kid who was always making up stories and poems for fun.  Yep, not homework, just for fun.  However, strangely I chose a completely different career path, I’m an accountant (not really much call for creativity there).  Looking back now, I’m not sure why, possibly because writing for me was such fun it was engrained in my brain as being a hobby, not something serious.  I never stopped writing though.  I have note books filled with song lyrics, poems and story ideas.  Some I’m incredibly proud of, some, well we’ll just put those to the bottom of the pile shall we… Last autumn I had a bit of a brain wave… potentially.  I decided that the story that had been running through my head for, well let’s just say a while, should be written down.  This revelation occurred to me in the mi