Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
For the last fourteen years I have been living just outside of the city of Barcelona in Spain. I’m actually an Englishman, I’m not Spanish, I was born about an hours drive north of London in, what was then, the small town of Braintree.
Braintree back then was a nice small town and it was a pleasure to grow up there, but as soon as I became a teenager, it suddenly became far to small.
I spent my seventeenth birthday in a campsite on the outskirts of Paris and realized I felt free, like the whole world was stretched out before me. I sat outside the big stadium in Paris listening with a bunch of people while Supertramp played their ‘Live in Paris’ concert, it was amazing; that was September 1980.
Rather than returning to the UK I went south and picked grapes in Burgundy, then moved even further south and spent Christmas in Greece picking olives and working in a bar.
The world really does go on and on and it doesn’t end with the click of a tv remote control.
In Israel I worked as a volunteer on a couple of Kibbutzes, picking fruit, driving tractors and generally having a wonderful time. I learned to play guitar and met people from all over the world. I took trips all over Israel, across to Egypt and spent several months traveling with Bedouin in the Sinai desert. A friend dragged me out of Sinai half blind because I had ‘snow blindness’ not from the snow but the glare of the desert sun on the sand – my sunglasses had been stolen. I then lived in Jerusalem in the Arab quarter for six months just soaking up the place, it really is an incredible city.
At the age of 20 I returned to the UK and became a carpenter and then a salesman. I took stockbroker exams after lying about my school qualifications, back then it was called the reps and traders exam and then after a couple of years got the urge to travel again. I went to Hong Kong… but the trip took two years going via India, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
I’ve spent a lot of time traveling. I’ve seen some amazing things and met some incredibly interesting people.
I don’t like watching tv, I like movies occasionally, but not just hours of watching program after program without remembering what I saw. So now I write.
The places I’ve been and the people I’ve met now come back alive in my books, so I’m still traveling, even if I live in the woods with my two kids and my dogs, my mind is still trekking the deserts and touring the souqs and markets with the bustling crowds.
I have published three books so far. The Flight of the Griffin and its sequel, Chaos Storm and an Arthurian legend called Shadowland – combined they have nearly 250 reviews with an average of 4.3 stars out of 5
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book I wrote was Chaos Storm, it’s the sequel to The Flight of the Griffin which was my first writing project.
In the first book we met four boys who are aged between twelve and fifteen years, they live on a boat named The Griffin. One of the crew, Pardigan steals a bunch of stuff from a merchant and among the items is a book which sets them on a quest to complete an ancient spell. The book gives the boys some rather special gifts that help them evade capture by an evil hunter, Matheus Hawk and a whole bunch of nasty demons led by Belial the demon lord. Guiding the boys on their quest is a shape changing girl named Mahra.
In the sequel, Chaos Storm, the crew of the Griffin are called upon to help the Kingdom in a time of war. To the north, the warrior queen Morgasta is massing her barbarian hordes, while across the desert another army is approaching led by an ancient Djinn – the army are known as the soul eaters.
Chaos Storm was inspired simply by my need to keep telling the story of the Griffin’s crew, there will be a third book making this a trilogy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if I have unusual habits because they are all quite normal to me…
I tend to write late at night when my children have gone to bed and my two dogs have stopped barking at the wild boar that crash through the trees in the forest.
I don’t listen to music, just the sound of the trees and occasional owl.
I have no plan when I write, I just let the story play out in my mind and tend to write about two thousand words then go back and edit, which helps the story take shape allowing me to go on.
I set myself no targets and will sometimes write every night for a week, and then not write for a month – I write for pleasure, not as a form of punishment!
I will often sip from a whisky while I write, or maybe a glass of red wine…. is that an unusual habit? I think not…
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been a voracious reader from an early age.
I remember my father giving me a Wilbur Smith book when I was about ten and I read everything I could by him.
John Steinbeck was a writing God, no word was ever out of place.
I read everything from fantasy to spiritual, biographies to historical essays, I love to read and when I’m not reading I’m writing… or singing songs and playing guitar rather badly, but maybe that’s after the second glass of wine!
What are you working on now?
My second book was an Arthurian legend, the story of Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, it’s called Shadowland.
Shadowland is set as the Romans are leaving Britain and the Saxons are invading. The British tribes are scattered and unprepared. Uther, a real historic figure, rises to unite the tribes and stand against the Saxons. It’s a tale that will have you guessing and dreaming along with me!
Shadowland is really popular I’m happy to say. It has 173 reviews on Amazon with an average of 4.3 stars out of 5 as an average and its currently being made into an audio book.
My current project is a sequel. I didn’t think there would be a sequel but so many people have asked me to write one I sat and searched for a story and found an incredible continuation.
Shadow of a King will be published end of 2014.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I hate promoting, but it has to be done.
I have the normal facebook and twitter accounts and actually use twitter a lot.
For some time I gave ebooks away on Amazon for free on various promotion days, but I don’t like free, I worked hard to write my books it seems demeaning to give them for free. I now reduce the price at various times to entice new readers, but mainly I sell books as people tell others to read them.
Among the websites to promote on, Awesome Gang of course is right up at the top of the list along with BookBub and Pixel of Ink.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Enjoy what you are doing, just a few authors among the many make real money selling books, most of us just get by with selling just a few hundred a month if were lucky.
Find a new voice, a new story something fresh from within. There are too many vampires and un-dead out there at the moment. Too many schools for wizards and magic rings, find something fresh and new.
Get a good editor. You absolutely cannot rely upon your own ability to proof and edit your own writing.
After you have a good editor then get a good cover designer, do not make your own covers.
Ignore either of these last pieces of advice and it will be a false economy, I have a great editor named Caro and a wonderful cover designer, Adriana Hanganu.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Live life consciously. Make everything you do a conscious decision. (Most of us just fall from one moment to the next as if someone else were piloting our bodies, we’re half asleep!)
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading two books, Red Country by Joe Abercrombie and The Physician by Noah Gordon.
Both are great books by very talented writers whom I greatly admire. I always seem to be reading more than one book, picking up either as the mood takes me!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m now six chapters into Shadow of a king, the sequel to Shadowland, but I also have various other ideas swimming around in my head. Spain has some great stories and a rich history that I will almost certainly delve into. I want to write a book set in Barcelona, but the Barcelona of the Templar’s and Inquisition. I also have some ideas for another fantasy book.
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?
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, The Lord of the Rings simply because it is the birth of fantasy and I love reading it again and again and finally I would take the third book in the trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss. I though the first two, A Wise Man’s Fear and The Name of the Wind were awesome.
I’m afraid, therefore, that I can’t leave for the desert Island until book three is published… will there be a bar?
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