about me

I was born with no roots, a child of the earth.
I have no natural affiliation to any race,
creed, colour or geographical location.
I bear no label or stamp on me to denote ownership.
My DNA says only; member of the human race;
no religious, political or social emblems encoded.
I owe allegiance to none but those whom I choose.
My freedom is my own to do with as I wish.

Crispy Sea - 2005

I’d been working in the computer games industry and was heading, from reviews, for a promising career until unfortunately I was invalided out with spinal issues; the accumulation of crashes, sporting injuries and hundreds of hours of mouse clicking?
Necrolysis’ birth in 1992, was as an attempt to find a new way to interact with a gaming environment. The PCS described in the story was the imagineered result. As I was looking for work as a game designer, less clicking involved, I wrote a game scenario to illustrate the use of the PCS, it became Chapter 9 and structurally is almost entirely as first envisaged.
Late '95, someone reads the scenario, says 'that's a big back-story'. My puzzled look lead to a rough explanation.
In '97 I had a first draft, true to its roots with multimedia in mind, structured to enable transformation to film, TV, game, what have you. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to write! Stick men characters, ‘tell’ not ‘show’, the telling of the tale was rubbish but I sent it off anyway. I didn't know!
One agent, Susan Wells, sent a very encouraging reply, but more back problems stopped me acting further and we lost contact. Her letter helped me; I knew she thought I had something. I devoured her suggested reading matter, but still didn't know how to improve what I had and filed the project under 'I gave it my best shot!' It had served a purpose, it had been my sanctuary when the pain was severe; solving a plot loop or creating some action separated me from my infirmity.
In 2001 my wife spotted a creative writing course tutored by Sheila McDermid (Author, The Tower). I signed up, attended weekly and in 2004, started a full rewrite. By ‘06 I was submitting, but 12 months ago, after yet another rejection, I gave up. My wife picked me up and dragged me, initially, into a major edit and 26060 words later, we have a finished(?) product, Necrolysis is an epic dystopian thriller of contemporary speculative fiction. I hope it tickles your enjoyment buds.

email - crispysea (at) diatribes (dot) co (dot) uk

favourite books

These ARE my favourite books, but they got that title because, more exactly, of all the books I've started, these are the only one's with which I've remained conscious to the end. What can I say, reading sends me to sleep! lol.

James Herbert - 48, The Fog, The Rats
Alan Dean Foster - The 'Spellsinger' Series
Margaret Atwood - Handmaids Tale, Oryx and Crake
Allan Folsom - The Day After Tomorrow
Philip Kerr - Gridiron
John Wyndham - The Chrysalids, The day of the Triffids.
George Orwell - 1984
Ray Bradbury - fahrenheit 451
Peter Benchley - Jaws

There may be others, I'll add 'em if I remember

my websites

http://blog.diatribes.co.uk     http://survivors.sporitech.co.uk