1. What’s your name? Hazel Halliday. Bit of a mouthful! Parents usually avoid giving their children a first name that starts with the first letter of their surname, but then I went and married a man! The joke is that the same thing happened to my sister and her initials are now LL. Throughout my life, people have mistakenly called me Heather – so what? - they’re both shrubs! 2. Where are you from? Born in Potters Bar, so have only moved a few miles north to Welwyn via Welwyn Garden City. 3. Why do you write/want to write? I haven’t written in many, many years and I rarely sit down with a book. I always thought I’d study English and be a teacher – but then my sister did that. So, instead, I went down the secretarial route. I’m a great organiser and writer of lists. I love acting with local drama groups, but, now at 68, the parts are harder to come by, so maybe it’s time to write for others. I have no idea what . . . 4. What’s your favourite story? That’s going to need a lot more thought than I have right now. I like fantasy. Love dragons – Anne McCaffrey, for example. Philip Pullman. Tolkien. I’m really looking forward to seeing the film of The Faraway Tree which I loved as a child. But a little nervous that I will hate what they do with it. I loved Small Prophets and binge watched the whole thing over two evenings. I’ve also just finished rewatching Dickensian. 5. Who’s your favourite fictional character? Another hard question. Maybe Aragorn. Or Hiccup. 6. Favourite writer? I honestly don’t have a favourite at the moment. 7. What world/universe do you wish you’d come up with? Pandora. 8. If you could change the ending of any existing story, what would it be (and why)? My mind’s gone blank. I know there are some but, right now, all I can think of is Titanic - lol. 9. What would the story of your life be called? I wish I’d done that. 10. Where do you hope to get to with your writing? Self-satisfaction. Anything more would be a bonus.

...and even though we're just getting started, I've had the best few days getting to meet and know people. Thank you for joining us here. And thanks, too, for putting up with my many typos - I'm frustratingly autocorrect-dependent (but it doesn't seem to work for me here!) If you haven't already, please do introduce yourself (we're all very nice). You can just say hello, or use the 10 things I'll state about me interview Qs. And I'm so pleased so many people are having a go at (and enjoying) the Scene One 7-day challenge. It's a great place to start. Don't forget that this evening, we're having our first online WYS social at 7pm London time. Hope you can make it (details in the 'Calendar' tab). Lastly, for now, I'm also new to Skool, and am gettign more notifications than I'd like - but these can be changed/switched off if you click on your profile pic top right (on desktop), then settings, and notifications. Mark :-)