About E.J. van der Velde
E.J. van der Velde was born in the South-West of Ireland but spent her younger years growing up in The Netherlands. Although she was raised to be bilingual, it was not until age 12 when she moved to England with her mother and sisters and was immersed in the English language that she discovered her love for words. Influenced by her English teacher’s faith in her, she gave everything to any essays or assignments that came her way. It was the beginning of a beautiful love affair…
Her teens were spent living in rural Ireland, surrounded by family and a close-knit community. A community wherein her mother always had the local priest’s number on speed-dial and the (only) local pub was founded and run by two of her uncles. One of those uncles was also the Gaelic football coach to the local team and later Manager to the county team who went on to win several national titles under his charge.
Having completed her college degree in the South-West of Ireland, Elaine went on to work in Dublin which included a temporary internal secondment to the Philippines where she was struck down with The Travel Bug. Upon her return to Dublin, she sold off all of her belongings, left her job and set off on a three year adventure which included teaching English in China, working on a cattle ranch in the Australian outback, performing in a flash mob in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, white water rafting on the Tully River, jumping from an aeroplane and working on various farms with a vivid recollection of being chased by a camera shy zucchini picker waving a knife.
Eventually she settled in Spain, bought a house and had two beautiful children with her partner. The fairytale did not last however and following much suffering she decided to leave the father of her children in favour of a more peaceful life. More recently, having relocated with her day job from Spain to Malta with her two children, now was the time to get serious about her writing. She is currently working on her first novel and building on her collection of poetry and short stories.