Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born in Ireland 1950, I left home in 1966 to go to sea for fourteen years and then transferred to the oil and gas industry. The past 32 years has led me to onshore and offshore energy installations all over the world, UK waters, Shetland, Middle East and the South China seas. I am happily married with two children, now grown up and both working in the oil and gas industry. My interests run to Rugby as an amateur player over 27 years, flying, sailing and writing. For the past 11 years my wife and I have been living on our sailing yacht ‘Grey Glider’ in the Mediterranean travelling through Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey where the yacht is now based. At one point I owned a six seat twin engine plane and qualified as a multi-engine pilot and certified to fly on instruments. I took up writing after being less than impressed and frankly disappointed with books bought in airports. I like to include some humour in my writing and prefer adventure thriller story lines. My work and my travels have provided wide and varied access to some remarkable and interesting places and situations. This has been one of the main sources for the ideas in my writing.
I have written one book published on Kindle and I am presently writing a sequel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is titled ‘Until the Fat Man Sings’ and the inspiration has been going round in my head for many years as I mentally wrote and rewrote the story dependent on what country I was in and what I was doing at the time> The final version is the culmination of many years of travel and experience.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, not really. I have a very good memory and having fixed the section of a story in my head I type straight into Word then refine the outcome before passing on to my excellent editor and proof reader
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wilbur Smith, Hammond Innes, Alastair Maclean and P.J O’Rourke. All classic adventure writers such as Ryder Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville. I was very lucky as a child in primary school where, in my final year, the headmaster left me to my own devices and a large chest of books while he concentrated on the other four boys in the class. The small number in the class in provincial Ireland permitted this to happen without the education being diluted.
What are you working on now?
When I wrote ‘Until the Fat Man Sings’ I had no intention of writing a sequel but apparently I left the door open for that. The majority of the reviews I have received were of the lines ‘We want more of the hero, Mike Balmayne’, ‘When will the next one be published?’
Therefore during the past six months as I sailed out of Turkey, crossed through the Greek Islands in the Aegean and on to Sicily, Italy the ideas have been defined and re-defined in my head and will now be captured to the computer and the editing process started.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As the majority of self-published authors know, the writing is the easy bit and by far the most difficult and frustrating part of the process is the marketing. I have tried social networks, Twitter, a dedicated Facebook page as an author, an author blog on WordPress and of course Awesomegang! The most effective so far has been business cards I had printed for the book with links to the book website, the author blog and my email address. As I travel into various ports, I pass these out to other yachtsmen, leave them on Marina notice boards or even to complete strangers who happen to reading something on e-reader.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t write one book and sit back waiting for the world to come to you, it won’t happen. The quote to become a genius as being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is mostly true. Be prepared to put in considerable effort into marketing but keep writing. The more books you have on the market the greater your chance of success.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Quote from a recently discovered letter from Oscar Wilde to an aspiring author. ‘Do not expect to make a living out of writing but don’t let that stop you!’
What are you reading now?
‘No Room for Secrets’ by Joanna Lumley
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing the sequel to ‘Until the Fat Man Sings’ the title of which I have yet to decide, that does not normally crystalise until I get halfway through writing. The rest of the time will be stepping up the marketing
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?
‘Catch 22’ – Joseph Heller
‘Puckoon’ – Spike Milligan
‘Holidays in Hell’ – PJ O’Rourke
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Author Websites and Profiles
William V Kelly Website
William V Kelly Amazon Profile