Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a first time author living in Liverpool, England. I have written three books of historical fiction set in the Age of Sail in an imagined world in which the Catholic Church continues to dominate Europe. It is a world of war, treachery and intrigue where England, France & Spain struggle for dominance. The central character is a young naval officer ‘on the make’ who gets drawn into the ruthless world of spying and intelligence. Pretenders War in set in the Caribbean and the Americas in 1782 where Randall Chastain endures siege, naval encounters, murder and betrayal. Succession is set partly in Germany where Randall must save the life of a pretender to the English throne and also in the Mediterranean where he must survive mutiny and enslavement by Barbary corsairs.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The third and latest book, The Sardinian Prince, will soon be out on Kindle. In our world, the Stuart pretenders (descendants of James II, overthrown as King of England in 1688) gradually died out but left behind a claimant to the throne, Charles Emmanuel of Savoy. What plots and intrigues might arise to put him on the throne for real, fundamentally altering the balance of power in a world at war?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, I write quickly and fluidly and let my imagination and writer’s instincts direct the words and plotlines. After that comes the long slog refining and reordering the work
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Patrick O’Brian, the author of the ‘Master & Commander’ series but also Gore Vidal, his ‘American Chronicles’ (Burr, Lincoln, 1876 and Empire). But I also like a lot of fantasy and science fiction (I am a huge Philip K Dick admirer), especially where history has been skewed somehow
What are you working on now?
I’m just finalising The Sardinian Prince but thinking of a series of books set in the American Civil War on the Mississippi and Tennesse Rivers, all plantations river wars and smuggling across the lines
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Believe in your characters, discuss your writing styles with other writers and practice, practice, practice. Hone your skills and take and use criticism to develop your art
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There’s nowt as queer as folk, as they say around where I was born
What are you reading now?
A David Donachie novel, also set in the Age of Sail and perhaps something I subconsciously tried either to copy or to improve upon in my own way
What’s next for you as a writer?
Southern plantations, civil war monitors, heat and betrayal where war and the struggle for survival destroys an imagined civilisation fatally infected by blood and arrogance
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?
Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson and the Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, simply because of the fluid writing, historical aspects and great command of prose
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