It’s always a challenge knowing how to introduce yourself, and hopefully the welcome page will do that a little, but welcome to the beginning of an awfully big adventure, for me anyway. So what do you need to know? I’ve held a variety of jobs, lived mainly in the North West of England, and have written for as long as I can remember. Poems, short stories, articles (even the odd tiny foray into journalism here and there), novels, children’s books, blogs, history, shopping lists. So why haven’t you heard of me I hear you ask? Well, in part because I’ve never really sat down and made the effort to be a ‘proper’ writer before. Or possibly because I’m not very good, that’s for you to decide.
Yes I’ve been published here and there, but I’ve never ‘made it big’, and never really engaged with mainstream publishing. Having worked for a number of years in the book trade I’ve had a little insight into how that all works, and in my youth had that cliched mix of exuberance and over confidence mixed with and Englishman’s self deprecation and self doubt. So while I’ve completed drafts of four novels (and numerous other writings) I never quite had the stamina and commitment to do all the annoying and less fun parts of re-editing and packaging myself for sale. Publishers and agents quite naturally want something marketable first and foremost, it is a business after all and they have to make a living, and that initial ‘pitch’ I always found frustrating. My natural tendency is to prevaricate and explain ‘it’s complicated’, wanting the words to speak for themselves, where what a third party wants is a neat pitch with a hook, and a clearly identifiable pigeonhole. My lack of pigeon-ness works against me here. And as the traditional wisdom goes, it doesn’t matter how good the writing is if no-one reads it, and without a book jacket blurb and press release, why would anyone read, let alone buy, anything in such a crowded marketplace.
While I have every author’s dream of being plucked from a slush pile and offered a multi-million pound advance, I don’t even buy a lottery ticket so why would I invest in something with even longer odds?
But times are changing, self publishing is less of a dirty word, less traditional forms of publishing are going from strength to strength, and, well, what the hell, why not give it a go. So on these pages you’ll find some short fictions and bits and bobs to see if you like what I do, with links to bigger works to follow, and even if you don’t click with my own style, you might find some new avenues for reading, watching and listening from my Influences section. I always find these great in interviews in magazines, and have found new delights over the years through recommendations, and if I do say so myself, I have impeccable taste 😊
Content will start appearing soon so settle down, make yourself at home and sample a few things, who knows, you might find you like it here.
So I’ll update my lists of influences over the coming months, starting quite naturally with some things I think are well worth reading, and provide a little more background and context of why they’re important to me in the blog, so here goes…