Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a retired engineer with a life-long interest in books and writing. Originally from England, I’ve lived with my family near Toronto, Canada, for many years and where I walk, run and takes wildlife photos whenever the weather will let me. In my writing, I like to capture the humorous side of life even when sometimes the world doesn’t seem to warrant it — for example in my first novel Diary of a Canadian Nobody.
For this new soon to be a series, The Modest Proposal Institute, I’ve returned to one of my earliest reading loves — science fiction.
I’ve written two novels and self-published a collection of my articles written for newspapers down the years — Random Musings.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Modest Proposal Institute: An Old Path to a New Future and it came about through watching my son’s experience in school and reading of the decline in reading/writing and other educational attainments of young men in the present day.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Other than procrastination and a general unwillingness to finish, no.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite author by far is Jane Austen. I aim for her matching humor in all my writing. More modern authors I like are Bill Bryson JK Rowling
What are you working on now?
The second book of The Modest Proposal Institute series.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I haven’t learned enough about promoting books to answer that question. Yours is one of the first I’ve even heard of.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Only to write every day and use a creative/copy editor and proofreader for final editing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The advice I’ve just given. It worked for me.
What are you reading now?
Mainly non-fiction. I’m preparing an Aunt’s wartime diary for publication so I’ve been reading other wartime diaries and memoirs of the time she lived.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Continue with and finish The Modest Proposal series and, in between, get my Aunt’s diary self-published.
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?
First, two Jane Austen — Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice and then
two non-fiction, Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence. The last one because it’s two volumes and requires my re-reading.
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