Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in the hottest, driest town in North East Australia. So, I spent my childhood dreaming of what it would be like to travel the world and living somewhere else. And that is what I eventually did. Along the way I moved to the USA and got married… and then things took a turn for the worst.
I started to write as a way to deal with my life falling apart. I have written 9 books so far, all with the same theme of overcoming obstacles and dealing with adversity.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book I have written is Wanderlost 5, which is the last book in the Wanderlost series of stories. I sat down to write what I though would be one book on the day of my 50th birthday. It turned into a series as there was so much pain and anguish in my life that I was dealing with, the writing is what kept me alive.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well it seems I write some of my best material after I have come close to committing suicide or I have had someone threaten to shoot me. Do not ask me why this happens to me. All I want to do is go about life with the least amount of fuss and danger.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
All of Bill Bryson’s books.
Fat, forty and fired.
Around Ireland with a fridge.
He died with a falafel in his hands.
What are you working on now?
Once I finish the reedit of the second and third book of the TORN series I will start on book 4. As if I did not have enough stories to tell already I had not even gotten to the part about, being thrown in a jail cell on arrival to a foreign country, believe I am going to be taken to an empty field and disposed of by the police, have a judge refuse to allow the Federal Police to let me leave the country the week COVID-19 starts shutting down international travel, AND have a hitman hired to kill me and my lawyer.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Bookbub was a very successful place the only time I have used it, but I am only now rereleasing all my books after a major rewrite as after the hitman and being taken to an empty field by a police officer in a foreign country, my perspective of the world and life completely changed.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, write. And be so honest about what you are writing you feel uncomfortable. There is enough fantasy and fakeness in the world today. It needs more honest voices.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
What are you doing here? Go home and write.
What are you reading now?
Erebus by Michael Palin
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish the rewrite of TORN 2 and TORN 3. Take a month off, and get drunk, or go stand in front of a riot and scream at everybody, or drive my car at breakneck speed down the highway. Then if I am still alive, start writing TORN 4.
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?
Either books made from vegetable matter so that I could eat them. Or how to books such as How to survive on a desert island. What a stupid question. If I can go to a library and will not be disturbed for a day what 3 books would I take is a FAR better question. If I am on a desert island I want to live, period. I am right now starting a write in campaign to never have desert islands used as a reference point for discovering people’s desires. Here is another better angle for that question. If I have the chance to go on a date with any woman/man I wanted, which books would make me rather stay at home and read.
I will be probably be chastised for writing that, well after a policeman sticks a semi-automatic rifle in your face in a deserted space at the end of a dead end street in Rio de Janeiro, a person stops caring about things such as that.
Author Websites and Profiles
Simon Williams Amazon Profile
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