September 2018
Another tick in another box - in September my second VW light and my third clock out of the 'Workshop' went on sale on Etsy.com. I am told they really are very good, all I can say is that there is much much more to come.
My website - you know if you are reading this - goes live. I promise to try and improve on it as time goes by but I am learning on the hoof so I would appreciate your patience and thank you for taking an interest,
August 2018
May 2018
During the last 12 months I had been collecting a wide variety of parts and materials - parts from cars and motorcycles already littered my garage but now I added industrial broken or worn parts from all manner of sources. Stone, acrylic and glass off-cuts were also scavenged to add to what my wife described as a growing 'junk' pile. I had converted my disorganised garage into a functioning workshop and completed my first 're-purposed' materials light and clock prototypes. Despite some scepticism on the designs from family and friends the finished products were received with great enthusiasm - requests for them began. As with my writing ideas I have a book or two or three filled with designs and sketches and I want to convert them all!
In July and August I found the momentum I needed to complete the first step in what I hope to be a continuing saga. As an aside I just wanted to say that some aspects of human nature never cease to amaze me. Despite having a mental state at its lowest ebb and a daytime job repeatedly kicking you in the teeth a raw survival instinct can kick in - prompted by family and close friends mine did, thank you. To those who would see me downtrodden and demoralised to prop up their own inadequacies well.......I think Axl Rose said it best. On the 19th August 2018 I self published The Globus Project on Amazon and Kobo in e-book and paperback - I am well aware that it may not be a classic or even close but to me it is a major tick in a bucket list and that is what counts!
August 2017
Whilst on a budget holiday in Italy during a heat wave of 40 degrees C and sitting on a gorgeous beach I had a strong compulsion to start looking through Globus again. It was probably prompted by a conversation with friends about how life would be so much better if we could fulfil a dream or two - we had drank a few Aperol Spritz that day. The subject of writing a book came up and we started talking about Globus. It was a no-brainer, I had to finish and publish it and if I couldn't find an agent then why not self publish? I decided to get back on the horse and immediately remembered why I loved writing so much but really didn't love the editing part! It was February 2018 before I came to the conclusion I needed help and after some research purchased editing software. I'm sure it isn't a patch on a professional editor but I really didn't have the cash for that route and I was happy with the assistance the software afforded me.
April 2014
In a twist of fate I took up a new job in March 2014 that once again meant my writing was put on the back burner. It really should have been a minor hiatus but it turned into a 3 year slump. I was still scribbling down ideas and dreaming up story lines but nothing really constructive was produced. I must have picked up and put down the Globus text a dozen times without successfully editing any two consecutive chapters. The good news was that it was during this period that the characters Jacob Silverman and Connor Vincenzo came into being - two separate stories were in the making.
February 2014
After tonnes of fresh air and many cubic metres of mud shifted I completed the first full draft of The Globus Project, enough to allow a couple of people to read what I had written - the feedback was positive. Taking the advice within a well known authors book on writing I decided to put my first novel in a drawer and continued with some of my other stories, including the sequel. My intention was to go back to the Globus manuscript after 6 months and start editing in preparation for publishing. In my naivety I started to approach a series of agents with the first 3 chapters - there followed positive encouragement from most but no offers of representation. Thankfully this was never really about being famous, let alone earning any serious money, it was just that I had so many ideas spilling out for so many years that it seemed wrong not to write at least some of them down - so I carried on if only just for me.
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June 2013
By 2010 I had finished a large proportion of The Globus Project however the final few chapters still eluded me. I had the beginnings of 3 more books in the BioBrother series and at least 5 others separate stories but my personal circumstances hampered any chance of creativity so I took up farming with a friend for a while.
2009
1992
After years of accumulating ideas I started to organise my less fantastical themes into a more structured proposal. I'd got plenty of time in the evenings whilst working in The Netherlands over the course of 18 months. My wife also gave me the perfect gift in the form of a 'little black book' and I started writing chapters and ideas of multiple books - my imagination went into overdrive and I still use the same book (and many others since) as source of inspiration. It was during this time I began to formulate The Magic Badgers from funny anecdotes for my kids into more structured story lines albeit still with the intention of explaining mysteries like the odd sock, the missing keys and the empty margarine tub in the fridge.
I started writing the first few chapters of a book - I had no idea what it was going to be or where it was going but it was enough to start me scribbling down random ideas from time to time. I had always had ideas for the 'things' I wanted to create or invent but I began to put them down on paper.