about me

The story so far . . .

Like many others, I’ve been writing on and off for more years than I care to remember, snatching the odd few minutes where I could.

Working full time in various soul-destroying office jobs, I also played guitar in a few low-key punk bands, published a slightly dodgy music/political/comedy fanzine (managing to produce four issues, plus an ‘anti-Poll Tax’ benefit tape with booklet and assorted goodies, over a period of six years).

In between I enjoyed an alcohol-fuelled social life, revolving mostly around Alternative/Indie/Punk/Goth gigs and clubs, whilst surviving the usual collection of failed relationships and stress-filled house moves.

After an enforced break from writing and music, I’ve devoted the past couple of years to getting back into writing, doggedly sending out short stories to British Horror/SF magazines, with a few acceptances (and numerous rejections) along the way.

I’m currently updating a list of non-UK magazines, so that I can start pestering the rest of the world with my short stories, and am also in the process of rewriting a (very rough) draft of a novel entitled “Personal Demons”, which I hope to upload to the Authonomy site later this year . . . for now I’ll be following the lead of others, by uploading short stories to the site as an anthology, to be called “Death & Night & Blood”.

I look forward (with some trepidation) to reading any comments that members might post . . .

favourite books

I read a wide spectrum of novels, trying to sample most genres (sometimes at random), although I especially favour stories that merge genres . . . preferences include Dark Fantasy, Horror (supernatural and/or psychological), Humour (twisted and/or surreal), Thrillers, Sci-Fi, etc (all from the modern, present-day fiction of today, to the classics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries).

Favourite Novels / Authors:
The “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series, and “Dirk Gently” novels (Douglas Adams)
“1984” & “Animal Farm” (George Orwell)
The “Stainless Steel Rat” series (Harry Harrison)
“Brave New World” (Aldous Huxley)
The “Reginald Perrin” series (David Nobbs)
“The Day of the Triffids” and “The Midwich Cuckoos” (John Wyndham)
The “Adrian Mole” series (Sue Townsend)
“Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” (Jeannette Winterson)
“2001: A Space Odyssey” (Arthur C. Clarke)
“A Clockwork Orange” (Anthony Burgess)
The “Blandings Castle” and “Jeeves and Wooster” series (P.G. Wodehouse)
“Catch 22” (Joseph Heller)

Other fave authors include:
John Connolly - H.G. Wells - Iain Banks - Agatha Christie - Raymond Chandler - Arthur Conan Doyle - Clive Barker - Edgar Allan Poe - Daphne du Maurier - Robert Harris - Dean Koontz (on his good days) - Ian Rankin - Koji Suzuki - Mary Shelley - Peter Straub - Isaac Asimov - Christopher Fowler - H.P. Lovecraft - Mark Morris - James Patterson - Bruce Robinson - Dorothy L. Sayers - Tom Sharpe - Mickey Spillane - Boris Starling - Stephen King / James Herbert (except their overtly ‘religious’ novels, especially where ‘God’ comes down and saves the day) - Dennis Wheatley / Graham Greene / John Buchan (ignoring the ‘casual racism’ and other dodgy right-wing politics sprinkled through their work - they wrote a darn good adventure yarn).

(Plus who knows how many others that I haven’t quite got round to reading, and those I have yet to stumble across by accident - there are just too many good books, by too many good authors, to read in any lifetime . . .)

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