User:Dawnnelson/sandbox

D A Nelson, Scottish author

D A (Dawn Ann) Nelson is the Scottish author of the DarkIsle series of children's books, The Children's History of Glasgow and e-books Dusting Down Alcudia and Ham: Memoirs of a P***ed Off Mother.

Born in Glasgow on November 30, 1970, Dawn is the eldest of three daughters and was brought up in the former mill town of Neilston, south-west of Glasgow. She attended Neilston Primary School followed by Eastwood High School. At the age of 18, Dawn became a cub reporter for The Glasgow South & Eastwood Extra, working for sister paper The Paisley, Renfrewshire & Gryffe Weekly News. She left to join the Hamilton Advertiser before taking up a post as a press officer for the Scottish Labour Party in 1996. In 1997, she was part of the Scottish team who helped Tony Blair's New Labour win the General Election.

In the summer of 1997, Dawn left to join South Lanarkshire Council as a press officer. Following this she took up jobs with Lanarkshire Primary Care Trust (now NHS Lanarkshire) and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (as a Communications Manager).

During this time, Dawn continued on her quest to become a published author. Following the birth of her daughter in 2005, Dawn joined the Society of Authors in Scotland where she met her first publisher Keith Charters (Strident Publishing) at the first meeting she ever attended organized by the Society. A couple of weeks later, Keith contacted Scottish members of the Society asking for children's books. Dawn responded with a novel she had started in her early 20s...this novel later became DarkIsle.

DarkIsle was the first book Strident published and it was launched in 2007 at a special event at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, where Dawn used to go to write at lunchtime during work days (Herald café). The sequel, DarkIsle: Resurrection was published in 2010. The third of the trilogy is due out in late 2013 or early 2014. DarkIsle won the 8-12 year category of the 2008 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books...the same award previously won by J K Rowling.

In summer 2013, Dawn published two e-books (Dusting Down Alcudia; Ham: Memoirs of a P***ed Off Mother).

Dawn is married with a daughter and son. She currently lives near Helensburgh in Argyll & Bute and is working on sequels to her e-books as well as another children's novel.

Read her blog at: darkislethebooks.wordpress.com