Helen Jackson joined Writers’ Bloc at the start of 2011. Her first story (“Power of Scotland”, which she read at Love Sick in February 2011) was one of the winners of the Scottish Wave of Change short story competition. It was published in August 2011 in the anthology ImagiNation: Stories of Scotland’s Future, edited by Gerry Hassan and Bryan Beattie.

Helen was selected for Story Shop at the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival. Story Shop showcases emerging writers. Helen read two stories in the Spiegeltent on Thursday 18th August.

To the amazement of her Writers’ Bloc comrades, Helen writes prose fiction because she thinks it’s a fast way of telling stories. It’s not that she’s a particularly speedy writer. She’s actually quite slow. This biography alone took days (half of which was spent agonising over whether to use the first or third person).

No, the reason writing seems quick is that Helen’s used to animation. Telling a story through animation is painfully time-consuming. On a really, really good day it’s possible to produce maybe ten seconds of footage.

There aren’t many really, really good days.

Being an animator, however, is rocket-propelled compared to Helen’s previous career as an architect. Buildings take approximately an eternity to create.

As Helen’s such a speed freak, it’s possible that she will eventually turn her attention to something even faster than writing. Snail racing, perhaps?

Helen’s website/blog: www.helen-jackson.com