Gabriela Harding

About Me

One of the questions I’m often asked is if Gabriela Harding is my real name. The reality is, I was born Raluca Negoescu in a small dreamy town in Southern Romania. (Gabriela is my middle name. Harding is my married name.)

I’ve always known I was a writer, all through the years in jobs that never fit: demanding, uninteresting, hard to fit around my busy writing schedule. I was a nanny in North London, a receptionist in Harley Street, a hostess for a Michelin restaurant, a content writer for a company in Los Angeles, a teacher and teaching assistant in over a hundred schools around London.

I’ve written two books. ‘Santa Claws’, a murder mystery, has initially stirred some interest in several literary agents. I couldn’t secure a contract, but the feedback I received gave me the confidence to self-publish. How could I allow something I worked so hard on gather dust on my own bookshelves, rather than on the shelves of a local bookshop? Years later, I would meet successful authors who talked about the many books they wrote and never published. This was a revelatory moment for me: it was okay to write and not to publish. Because, as poet Emily Dickinson famously said, ‘Writing is everything.’

My second book, a collection of short stories inspired by life in post-communist Romania published by TSL Publications, will be released soon.

I’m currently working on my third novel, a psychological thriller. The most difficult thing for me is writing a synopsis, because I’m not a natural planner. I recently heard Anne Cleaves tell an audience that what keeps her interested in the book she’s writing is wanting to know how it ends. I was relieved to know that there are more writers out there who have no idea where a plot journey is going to take them.

You can keep in touch with me on social media: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are my best friends. Like most writers, I’m a typical loner, most comfortable behind a screen, though I do occasionally get out of bed to attend writing and publishing events all over the UK. You can always find me at First Monday Crime on the first Monday of every month.

I used to run a blog, but I gave it up in favour of academic writing and court interpreting – two of my favourite pastimes at the moment.