WRITER: Although I had always been an avid reader my writing really started many years ago on holiday. I'd read the novels I had taken with me to The Algarve and decided to create a story of my own. I sat by the pool with pen and paper but no idea what I was going to write. One thing in my mind was to create an attention grabbing opening. I wrote the first line... a spoken line that wasn't finished. Why was the sentence cut short? I wrote the next line. And so the story developed, line by line in the beginning, then it was as though the pen took over and I was writing quickly and wondering what was coming next. The story developed into a tale about lucid dreaming, with the lead character having two lives, one in the humdrum real world, the other with a fearless, devil-may-care attitude. Ultimately his dreams start to effect his real world with disastrous changes. This story 'Castles in the Air' became a 10,000 word short story and was the catalyst to my writing interest.
In time I joined a writer's circle in Eastbourne, East Sussex where I honed my writing, and later took over in the chair for a couple of years. By now I was writing more short stories but also began to get my teeth into novels. 'The Glass Door' was a story about a group of friends who contacted the spirit world through a ouija board. This was based on real-life experiences.
Next I started writing a humorous story, 'Tangled Web', about the mixed up lives of country village families. While deep into this I was told an allegedly true tale of the experience of a friend's mother in a car park. It seemed obvious to me that this was an urban myth... a man dressed as an old woman tricks his way into a lift with the unsuspecting mother. When the mother begins to think all is not well she manages to get him out of the car before driving off to the police station. Here the police discover an axe under the passenger seat and tell her she's had a lucky escape. I was compelled to take time out to write a short story, 500 words, to iron out all the discrepancies I saw, and ended with the capture of the villain. He makes a vow never to do it again - never to leave any clues or witnesses.
I got back into 'Tangled Web' but became overtaken by wondering what my villain did when released from jail. Eventually I had no choice but to set 'Tangled Web' aside and get down to writing 90,000 words of 'Deadly Vow'. I made a conscious effort to write the whole book purely from the villain's point of view. Sounds easy, but it was hard not to go to a chapter showing police investigations. One other downside was that I found myself getting deeper and deeper into this evil character's head - this was what I intended for my readers, not me! All in all a good exercise, though. I was then able to get back to 'Tangled Web' once again.
After a bit of a break in my writing I joined a magazine group, Magnet Publishing, and wrote articles for Music Maker, Excursions, and Craft Maker magazines. Later I became an associate editor for the group.
One day I saw that an old friend of some years previous had written a novel called 'Judas' about Judas Iscariot in 2012 with a task to protect six year old Charlotte fron Lucifer. I was concvinced this would make a great film and contacted the author, Roy Bright, offering to write the screenplay. After this had been completed Roy suggested collaborating on a new screenplay project. We did this and 'Toying' developed into a prequel to Judas. Roy was also busy writing the next novel in the series, followed by another, and these have now all been published and we have worked up four screenplays in the Judas Iscariot series.
I suggested writing something based in the UK, as the previous projects are all based in New York. Togther we wrote 'The Last Status' based in North West UK and a dark gritty, drama/horror centering around a post on Facebook leading our protagonist into a terrifying situation.
I later adapted the screenplay into a novel - The Last Status - available on [Amazon] as paperback and ebook for Kindle.
There are now many other novels and short stories which can be found [here].I was recently contracted to write a screenplay based on a true story. "Lucky Johnny" details the life of Johnny 'Lucky' Sherwood who, on the verge of being signed to play football for England, joined the British Army at the outbreak of WWII. He was sent to Singapore as a PE Instructor and captured by the Japanese after only a couple of weeks. After being moved around several PoW camps, and working on the notorious Burma railway and the River Quai, he was put on a ship to be transported to Japan. The ship was torpedoed and he found himself drifting in shark-infested water for several days before being rescued - by a Japanese destroyer. He was taken to a PoW camp near Nagasaki - and shortly after this the city was flattened by an American A-bomb. The fortunate fact that the wind was blowing away from the camp saved him once again. When the war ended he was taken to America to recuperate before eventually being shipped back home to his ecstatic family in England.
Writing has now become a big part of my life.