An Up-and-Coming Indie Author: My Mum, Catherine Lynwood

I’m Samantha Lynwood, and I wanted to share a little about my mum, because she’d never tell you herself. Catherine Lynwood isn’t a big-name author (yet), but she’s the real deal. She grew up in Birmingham in the early 1980s, when it wasn’t the shiny city you see on TV today.

Back then, our part of Birmingham was struggling. The Austin car factory strikes meant families didn’t know if they’d have work. Shops closed, pubs emptied. Rows of terrace houses felt tired and worn out. Unemployment was high, and people felt forgotten.

Mum remembers the boarded-up windows, the arguments over bills, and the sense of hopelessness that hung over everything. But she also remembers community. Neighbours who shared what they had. People looking out for each other. Even in hard times, there was loyalty.

She’s always been a writer at heart. Even as a girl, she scribbled stories on scraps of paper, anything she could find. She told me she used to lie awake at night making up scenes in her head, imagining lives beyond those streets. She says writing was a way to survive, even before she knew it was a career.

Now she’s written The Alpha Flame: Discovery. It’s not about glamour or easy answers. It’s about real people in real places making tough choices. It comes from her own memories of what it meant to grow up in a place like that, and what it took to keep going.

• Set in 1980s Birmingham, just like where she grew up
• Characters shaped by hardship and loyalty
• A story with truth at its core

Mum doesn’t like to shout about herself. She says the work should speak. But I think people deserve to know where it comes from. This isn’t a slick marketing team or a big publisher. It’s just her, remembering the streets she walked as a kid and trying to do them justice on the page.

When she writes about lost girls and struggling families, she knows what that feels like. When she writes about loyalty, it’s because she’s seen it, people giving their last bit of food to a neighbour, watching each other’s kids when shifts ran long. She knows the cost of hope and the cost of losing it.

The Alpha Flame: Discovery is her way of giving voice to those memories. It’s not a glossy, easy read. It’s raw and real and full of heart. She’d probably be embarrassed I’m writing this, but I think readers deserve to know the person behind the words.

So if you’re here wondering who Catherine Lynwood is, it’s my mum. Someone who grew up in tough times, held on to her stories, and finally put them on the page. I hope you’ll give them a chance.

• Real stories from real places
• Honest and unflinching
• Written with love for those who lived it