About Serina Hartwell

Did you ever have an itch you couldn't scratch, a feeling that you're supposed to be doing something else, something bigger with your life? Something that would touch the souls of the rest of mankind and justify your place among your fellow men, but you just couldn't put your finger on what? Well Serina Hartwell spent the best part of 40 years looking for the answer and low and behold, finished up back where she started, with writing. She sometimes questions why she didn't just turn in the opposite direction, she would have gotten there straight away, but her path led her away from writing when she was just a teenager, because she lacked the confidence to pursue her dream. Reminiscing one day, the thought occurred to her that if she had found writing back then, she wouldn't have taken the journeys that led her to write The Hidden Saga.

Her name is Serina Hartwell and she is the mother of two, who grew up when she blinked. Serina always writes with her writing companion, her cat Tilly, and comes from an average size town in West Yorkshire, England. The same place where the Bronte sisters were born, and the village in the mill town she writes about.

Growing up in an industrial town, and coming from a working class background, she was surrounded by the mills, which were once the life blood of the community. Decrepit and falling into disrepair, they shadowed the place where she lived, serving as a reminder that her town once thrived. Serina watched as one by one, the mills went out of business and closed, serving to inspire her story, while changing the landscape around her.

Her mother worked in the mills when she was a child. She recalls every night, her father taking her and her brother to collect her mother from the mill and walk her home over the lonely beck-side. These trips along the shortcut are embedded throughout Hidden, as Serina's childish imagination finally materialised on the page.

It was only recently that she found her way back to writing. 'It's funny how life has a way of bringing you full circle,' she said. 'Today I have the beginnings of something big within my grasp.'

Follow her journey to becoming a full time writer. Step into her world and let her take you on a journey...