Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in Macclesfield in the UK in 1980 and I was raised in Doncaster. I trained to be an electronic engineer, but found greater satisfaction in programming computers. I have a wife and three children.
So far I have written two books and I am working on a third. I have plans for many more books, but I find it is best to focus on one at a time.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I will release “Stranded Aelians Need Technical Assistance” in November 2016. The story is about a girl called Sarah who is sent to the North Pole on Christmas Eve by accident, where she discovers a race of Lians from the planet Ael.
The story was inspired by questions about how Santa is able to deliver presents to the whole world in one night and by the movie “The Thing”, in which an alien shape-shifter is discovered frozen in the antarctic. Due to the story being written for children, the tone is driven more by adventure than by horror. The story is finished, but I am waiting for the illustrator to finish his work.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write my stories on a smart phone and transfer them to a laptop for formatting. I also have a nasty habit of putting in too many commas, but hopefully they won’t spoil your enjoyment of the story too much.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Backwards by Rob Grant and Wagstaffe the Wind Up Boy by Jan Needle are my favourite fiction books.
I find that my stories are also heavily influenced by TV series such as ReBoot and Power Rangers.
What are you working on now?
My current project is “Stormbringer: Haunted City”, which is the third book in my “Legends of the 23rd Century” series. It takes place two years after the first two books and follows June Anderson as she struggles to overcome the urge to take revenge on the gang leader who killed her mother. Her main mission this time is to discover the cause of hallucinations which are affecting an entire city.
To compound her mission further, she has to contend with four teenagers each with different Stormbringer-like powers.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far I’ve had little progress with promoting my books. Most promotional websites either ask for money I don’t have or for more Amazon reviews than my books have.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be discouraged if your first book doesn’t sell. Readers will be more likely to see your work if there’s lots of it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I have heard is to learn from criticism in reviews.
What are you reading now?
I’m not currently reading anything.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The next book in my schedule is “Sir Orion: Champion of Murhaven”, which takes place in a world of steel castles, robotic knights and a millennium of peace broken by a war of conquest.
The Queen of Murhaven dies in childbirth, leaving the King with twin heirs; a prince and a princess.
The royal seer informs the king that one of his children will overthrow the king before his time, so he sends his infant son to live in another kingdom.
Many years later the kingdom comes under attack from outside. While losing knights and territory, the King receives a message from the leader of the invading force, stating the princess is their target.
After losing the strongest of his champions, Orion is the last man willing to fight for the kingdom, but also the weakest.
With the princess kidnapped, Orion must venture into enemy territory retrieve the princess and slay the leader of the enemy forces. However, Orion is faced with a difficult choice when he unmasks the enemy commander…
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Backwards by Rob Grant, Wagstaffe the Wind Up Boy by Jan Needle and an instruction book on raft construction.
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