I was born in Worcestershire, England and currently live in Brighton. I was a voracious reader as a child and could often be found under the covers at night with an Enid Blyton book in one hand and a torch in the other ("The Magic Faraway Tree" is still one of my favourite books).

Reading fired my imagination and it wasn't long before I started writing my own 'books'. I received my first rejection letter at the age of eight when I sent a book I'd written and illustrated (about a group of flower friends and their nemesis the 'Evil Weed') to Penguin Publishers. It was probably the nicest (and most helpful) rejection letter I've ever received!

In 2003 I took a Creative Writing evening course at the local college and, when it finished, I started a book about a girl who went to boarding school (they do say your first book is always autobiographical) but put it to one side so I could write short stories instead, telling myself I had all the time in the world to write a novel.

In the summer of 2006 one of my best friends from school died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her death made me realise that we don't always have 'all the time in the world' to follow our dreams. I didn't want to be someone who talked about 'wanting to write a novel'. I wanted to be someone who actually finished one.

So, in February 2007, I started to write a new novel. I wrote almost every night and, just under four months later, I finished the first draft. A little over a year later I signed with my agent.

"Heaven Can Wait", which was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America Stiletto Contest 2008, will be published by Orion in October 2009.

Foreign rights have been sold to Germany, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Taiwan and China and other deals are being discussed. I'm currently writing my second novel and still enjoy writing the occasional short story.

p.s. The only thing I don't write is poetry so if you've seen some Cally Taylor poetry on the web it's not mine!

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