I grew up in the Barossa Valley, an area of South Australia predominantly settled by German immigrants. As a dark-haired, tanned little English girl (remember Britain was at one stage occupied by the Romans), I was very different and mercilessly teased.
I remember the struggle to learn to read – painfully stringing three letter words together – there was Sam and Pam and a ball. Sometimes there was a fat cat on a mat or dog with a ball. Reading was a slow process until one birthday, I sat down with my gift, a Famous Five book by Enid Blyton. The mystery story was so exciting, I finished it in one session and I was a fast reader from that moment onwards. I loved Enid Blyton, her Wishing Chair stories, Magic Faraway Tree stories, fairy-land and toy-land stories as well as the mysteries.
A couple of years later, I discovered The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It was so amazing, I read it seven times in a row! Eventually, I discovered there was a whole series… I survived on this sort of fair until I was sixteen and read The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. That gave me a taste for mature fantasy. In search of more riveting reading, I discovered Stephen King and James Herbert. Stephen King’s Danse Macabre led me to H.P. Lovecraft, on whom I completed a Master’s project.
My Thesis entitled: THE LITERARY MANIFESTO OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: A WRITER IN SEARCH OF A THEORY (1993-1994) was completed as a reseach project which replaced several subjects in my Master of Arts through the Univeristy of New South Wales. The last chapter was considered to have the most appeal to fans of Lovecraft's work and was extracted and published as “Symbolism of Style in `The Strange High House in the Mist'", Lovecraft Studies 31, edited by S.T. Joshi, pp.11-15. (Published under the name of Cecelia Drewer).
In 1988, I wrote my first full length fictional manuscript, often scribbling on the train as I travelled from Newcastle to Sydney to attend post graduate study at university. In the year 2000, I brought my second full length manuscript into being and 2004 saw my third full length manuscript. All are very different genres and all are waiting for readers! I have always been clever at creating dialogue and in 2010, a Nativity Play I wrote was produced by a local church.
In 2016 I wrote an online course on “Poetry Appreciation and Analysis Skills” on Open Learning. The course can be found at: https://www.openlearning.com/courses/poetry-appreciation-and-analysis-skills
I also write for Weekend Notes (an online magazine) and Hubpages. My Poetry can be found on Poetry Soup at: https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/best/85098/cecelia_hopkins-drewer
Books by Cecelia Hopkins Drewer include:
Silver Springtime (The Silver Springs University Seri
