About Me

I was born in Aylesbury, Bucks, but I really didn't have much say in the matter. My parents moved to the south coast of England when I was just a wee baby. Grew up in the seaside town of Torquay (the birthplace of Agatha Christie, don'tcha know?) and after a brief and unhappy spell in London returned to Torbay and now reside in the sleepy town of Paignton. I've had many jobs over the years, including nursery assistant, nursing home assistant, sales assistant, assistant manager in a convenience store, and many other jobs with the word 'assistant' in the title, but writing has always been my thing. Started writing when I was very young, churning out comics and novels in my early teens as if my life depended on it. The main comic I worked on was the weekly adventures of a superhero called Roc. Managed to reach issue 125 before giving up through sheer exhaustion.

Wrote some pretty fruity horror novels as a teenager in my bid to be the new Stephen King. Carrion, Tomahawk's End, The Twilight Man, The Reaper, The Day of Deliverance. These were all full-length novels but unfortunately ("or fortunately", Who said that?) the manuscripts were lost in numerous house moves. Probably a good thing, really. After a brief dalliance with no-budget film-making in my twenties I returned to writing seriously after turning thirty, when I realised that nothing else on this earth gave me as much pleasure as sitting down and making stuff up. Since then, I've had about fifty short stories published over the past seven years and my first book, The Hotel Galileo, was published in 2009 by Wolfsinger Publications.

I love movies, books and music. I play guitar and a bit of keyboard. I recently graduated from the Open University with a degree in Literature. And, a bit like Hudson Hawk, I am on an eternal search for the perfect cup of coffee. As a result you can usually find me in the local Costa. I'll have a Flat White, thank you very much.

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Music for Writing

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How do you write? In silence? Or with heavy metal blasting out at full blast? I used to be able to write with my favourite music playing (usually on my headphones, especially if the kids were in bed). But in recent times I've found it increasingly hard to concentrate with music, particularly music with lyrics. Quite often now I will play a movie score soundtrack. Batman Begins is a favourite, as is John Carter . Recently, though, I've discovered some even more useful musical accompaniment on YouTube. The video below is a good place to start. Not quite 'ambient', more... 'atmospheric'. Puts me in just the right mood for composing prose. ['Comprosing'? Err, no.] Check it out. And if you don't like this one, there are plenty more to choose from.
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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams . . .

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Twelve months ago I was in a bad place. The New Year was looming, I had some personal problems that were kicking my behind, and my writing career was not progressing the way I'd hoped. Then, on Jan 2nd, I received a late night phone call from America. It was Joni Labaqui from the Writers of the Future Contest. The story I had entered almost four months previous (and which, to be honest, I had forgotten about) had reached the final 8 of the quarter. Ms Labaqui assured me that my story was really good and that I was a talented writer. I almost cried. As it happens, the story didn't make the all-important Final 3 but shortly after I went on to sell it to Realms of Fantasy Magazine* . [*That's another story.] Anyhoo, this episode taught me a couple of things. One, I can do this . I've "got the chops", as they say. Two, I started telling myself to stop waiting around for things to happen. Make your own opportunities . At the time, I didn't quite know what tha...
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Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy: An Appreciation

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