Frederick Mitchell is our resident sports columnist for our sport webpages and contributes other articles to this website. He will also be contributing regularly to our Hall Of Fame webpages, which will contain information and links about famous writers from the past and present who had or have South African links. Frederick Mitchell lives in Cape Town with his wife and baby daughter. He is a computer analyst programmer who writes in his spare time. He writes what he knows about and will spend a great deal of time on research if he feels he needs to find out more about something. He feels that hands-on experience is best for anyone wanting to be a writer, and he himself draws extensively from his own background and experience. He is presently busy with the second draft of his current novel, a romantic thriller set in the streets of Cape Town. Frederick is passionate about writing and cannot envisage life without it. His writing talent was discovered by teachers at school, all of whom encouraged him to continue with the craft. He wrote several school plays and even won numerous writing competitions while still at school. More often than not, he had to direct the plays that he scripted. He has written a variety of plays - from horror, to life on the Cape Flats, to what he calls a rip-off of Shakespeare's King Lear. After he finished school, the same school theatre group, Entertainment Theatre Productions, stayed together and wrote, directed and produced plays. They published a theatre magazine called Create which dealt with anything and everything to do with the world of theatre - from costumes to producing plays. Frederick often found himself in the role of writer, director and producer. However, he had to eventually curb his participation in the theatre group as it was a full time job. He is still involved in the group, but on a part time basis. His other interests include sport and chess. He used to teach chess at one time and was president of the local chess club for ten years. He has received provincial colours in chess as well. Frederick is a talented and enthuastic writer. He has the ability to tackle most genres, but his preference is fiction, especially romantic thrillers. To date he has written various short stories, articles on writing and sport and has completed two novels. He has been told that his first novel is too long, so he will be either rewriting that one, or editing it into a trilogy. His current work should be finished in a few month's time and he plans to start on a new manuscript no later than April 2003. This talented young writer already has an agent at his beck and call. He not only edits his own work, but enjoys editing other writer's work as well. He is sincere, straightforward, encouraging to others and has a killer sense of humour. As a novelist, he has a wonderful imagination and his creativity enables him to create fascinating characters and plots. There is no doubt that he is flying high and will manage to fly even higher. S.A. Writers is privileged to have Frederick Mitchell on board as one of our regular contributors.   (compiled by Debbie Joubert)