How It All Started

26 September 2025

Sue Pritchard was 50 years old when she finally found the courage to write her way towards her childhood dream of becoming an author. She now believes we're never too old and it’s never too late to reach for those dreams we once thought were out of reach.

I’ve always been in denial about my age. I still look around for an adult in a crisis and then think oh crap, that’s me isn’t it?! However, there’s no denying that since celebrating my 50th birthday, the passing years have been playing on my mind. I’m well aware there are fewer years ahead of me than behind, and I’m now at that point in life when I could start regretting some of the things I haven’t done, much more than the many embarrassing things I have.

And at the forefront of it all has been my childhood dream. The dream I’ve harboured in my heart for over 40 years.

You see, since I was nine years old, I’ve always wanted to write a book. As life often does though, it trampled all over my dream. Haunted by childhood hangups and only being a mediocre student in English at school, my author ambitions almost became my dirty little secret. I was shy and lacked self-belief, forever in awe of the Saffrons and Eloises at my grammar school, who spoke and wrote as if they ate a dictionary and thesaurus for breakfast every morning.

I did however become a trade journalist in the waterpower industry. Although I’m grateful to have been in that job for more years than I dare to admit, with the clock ticking insistently away, I started to embark on an unexpected soul-searching quest.

Fully entrenched in middle age, I fired questions at myself as if I was the quiz master facing a contestant on a famous TV show.

Who am I?

What do I want to do now?

Is there more for me out there?

I didn’t have a clue what the answers to these questions were. I had to pass or use a lifeline to phone a friend for help.

“I think I’m waiting for some divine inspiration,” I half-jokingly told them.

And I really do believe that’s what happened.

Spiritual Intrigue

After my dad suddenly died in 2009, when he was only ten years older than I am now, I gradually became intrigued by the more spiritual side of life. Knowing my mum was seeking solace after such heartbreaking loss, I obligingly kept her company when she wanted to visit psychics - determined to keep an open mind for the both of us.

As the years passed by though, curiosity started to get the better of me. I often thought about visiting a psychic and having my own personal reading, but was never brave enough. However, everything changed when I hit that milestone 50th birthday. It wasn’t the desire to reconnect with my dad that finally made me pull up my big brave pants and go. No. It was a worrying spate of costly bad luck that had me fearing for my life and wondering if I was cursed.

My friends would raise a quizzical eyebrow, shifting warily away, when I told them what was going on. Fires, car crashes, illness, injury, cancelled holidays, almost breaking everything I touched – it was all becoming a bit too much.

So that’s why I plucked up the courage to ask a psychic what on earth was happening to me. At the same time, I hoped they might point me in a more decisive direction towards the rest of my life.

“Your dad says he’ll help write that book you’ve always dreamt of,” Tracy Sharman, a psychic from Talking Spirit, told me on a sunny October morning in 2022.

Believe me, if you want a perfect example of a bombshell, this is it.

Dumbstruck

Sighing with relief after Tracy reassured me I wasn’t cursed; I tried not to laugh out loud at the absurdity of her unbelievable suggestion. I was stunned though. How could this psychic whom I’d never met before and who knew nothing about me, know anything about my childhood dream? A dream I’d kept close to my heart and hadn’t spoken aloud for many years.

Almost spluttering in shock, I admitted to Tracy I may have wanted to write a book but was clueless about what to write.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured me. “Your dad will help. He’ll give you guiding signs along the way.”

By now I was dumbstruck. I mean, how on earth could my dead dad help me write a book?

The next day though, with Tracy’s encouraging words at the back of my mind, I started to pay attention when books fell spookily at my feet and songs played nonstop in my head. With robins almost stalking me, and oracle cards offering uncanny messages, I began to wonder if these were gentle nudges from my dad. Whatever they were, their magic was working.

Dream Catcher

Only a day after visiting Talking Spirit, I finally found the courage and inspiration to start writing that book I’d dreamt about for over 40 years. And I’m now seeking publication of my first book called Dream Catcher - a memoir about how extraordinary our ordinary lives really are.

Believe me. It’s not been easy. Trying to write a book when plagued with self-doubt is hard enough. Trying to explain your dead dad has helped to write that book is even harder.

“Call a taxi for Sue,” I feared my friends and family would shout. “She’s finally lost the plot!”

But here we are, over 75,000 words later, and I truly believe in the words I’ve written. Every single one of them has shown me what can happen when you start to believe in yourself, and reach for those dreams you’ve kept close to your heart for far too long.

As I’ve witnessed, the power of belief can be extraordinary. It doesn’t matter where they are, or how long it’s been since you last saw them, the power of having someone you love to say they believe in you, especially when you struggle to believe in yourself, is out of this world. Quite literally!

It’s something I now want to shout from the rooftops because it’s never too late and you’re never too old to start chasing those dreams you thought were out of reach.

You never know, you might just catch them.

PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Sue’s dad, Roy Moxon, died in 2009 but somehow offered her a helping hand from beyond the grave, encouraging her to start writing the book she’s dreamt of since childhood.

Sue with Tracy Sharman from Talking Spirit in Kent. It was a psychic reading with Tracy in October 2022 that gave Sue the courage to start writing.