Local author's story included among 100

A story by Ms Sheila Drakeley of Umina has been included in Volume 5 of Seniors' Stories.

"I was really delighted and quite surprised when they contacted me to tell me my story had been accepted," she said.

NSW Seniors Card introduced the Seniors' Stories writing competition in 2013 as a way of recognising and valuing the experiences of NSW seniors and building connections between the young and the old.

This latest collection of 100 stories is the fifth volume of Seniors' Stories and this year's theme was Love Your Life.

Mrs Drakeley's contribution was titled The Window of Time.

"The theme was about life so I went back over my life and wrote about looking through a window at glimpses of my life from childhood to now," she said.

"It's a lovely book.

"The stories in there are very good, and I think the libraries have copies to read."

Mrs Drakeley has been in Woy Woy Writers Group since 1992 and has been writing since she was a child.

"It's just something I love to do and I like to share it with other people at writers' group when we get together every week on a Tuesday and read our stories.

"We meet in the hall behind St Luke's Church during the day on Tuesdays.

"The Fellowship of Australian Writers' Gosford branch closed, unfortunately, but a few of us still meet once a month to talk over what we're doing.

"I've just finished my memoirs which took me nearly three years and I've been doing that in between writing short stories.

"I'm working now on a 5000-word story for a competition which I first entered a couple of years ago and made a shortlist of nine, so I thought I'd have another go at that," Mrs Drakeley said.

SOURCE

Interview (Sue Murray), 12 Feb 2020

Sheila Drakeley, Umina

Media release, 31 Jan 2020

Adam Crouch, Parliamentary Secretary for Central Coast