AUTHOR

Unlike the rest of my family, sister and relations, the show jumping bug did not sit well with me at all. Especially as most of my early memories were of sitting in a freezing cold riding school in the middle of winter with a gas ‘chariot’ heater for company. Watching my sister going round and around a riding ring having her lessons on an animal that had a mind of its own as to what it wanted to do.

To my great misfortune, my suffering did not just stop there, on days when my sister was away or on holiday somewhere. I would have the honour of riding out on her horses across the fields with my mother to exercise them.

Nobody, and I mean nobody who does not ride can possibly imaging the total fear and terror that goes through an unskilled rider’s mind as you hit an open strip of field. The horse pricks its ears forward and starts to bounce on its toes as it prepares for a flat-out gallop on one of its known hotspots. While for me, the poor rider, prays I will be alive and still on the saddle should it decide to stop at the end of the run. Most of the time I would just jump of and walk the horse at these points as I was not that brave and these horses could really move when they wanted to.
Fortunately for me, I found my passion in fishing, man’s primal instinct to catch what was wild and untamed below the surface of the water had me fishing every moment I possibly could. This grew into competing in junior then senior competitions and then into what I loved most, team competitions up to the division national levels.

I have always enjoy being part of a team and have carried this passion throughout my working life, training and becoming a professional Chef. Running the kitchens in hotels and restaurants as a team and having people wanting and booking weeks in advance to eat in the places you worked is such a buzz.

Still hungry to see what the world had to offer and learn new skills in life, I left being a chef at still quite a young age, my last ever function being to cook the food for my sister’s wedding in a private event. Still to this day, one of my proudest moments as we did it ourselves and my master chef provided the wedding cake.

My new career would take me back to collage for four years on night classes learning about quality and quality standards as I worked and trained to be firstly a quality engineer, then a dimensional metrologist. For twenty-six years I have reviewed drawings, written programs and laid out samples with a team of which there were none better.

It is here around nine years ago that my book venture started, tired yet unable to sleep, I began to put pen to paper and write down my thoughts on what I was thinking, slowly they began to form a story. Over the years, nearly six in all, the book began to make more sense and fit together in chapters. Nearing the end of the manuscript’s completion, I had several ideas for another story and pursued this new venture in my spare time. Taking me another year to complete, once finished I thought nothing more of it for some time, just left it to one side gathering dust. While I went back to my original book and started to go through the chapters again and improve my writing of them.

That is until my friend who had been reading some of the chapters suggested that I should consider self-publishing my work, explaining the content was very good, but needed refining. As usual with me, the idea stuck in my head that it would be something special if I were able to get my book published.

Weeks of research online had shown that my book was very large and I needed a lot of help and expense to take it to the next level. So, I decided to learn how to publish a book on my latest offering as a way of preparing myself for working on my larger book. Using a professional company for their contacts, I went on to learn about and use a copyeditor then a proof-reader twice, as I constantly adjusted my manuscript to the advice provided.

My book ‘What price a kingdom’, is now published and available to read, in e-book, paperback and hardback copy, something I am very proud to show off as it was a steep learning curve to get completed.

In my style of writing, I like to get the reader to know and bond with many of the character’s as possible, to understand them and what makes them tick. Not just the main protagonists, but the support characters as well, as they have less time to be understood but are key to the story. Anna and Wellesley are prime examples as they add so much humour and entertainment to proceedings along with unfaltering bravery and loyalty to the script.

With lessons learned, my original book has been split into three parts due to its size and complexity. ‘Lives less ordinary’, part 1 (A place of our own), part 2 (Lost angel of Paris) and part 3 (Plight of the raven), will be added to the ‘up and coming books’ in my portfolio over the next few weeks, with a brief description of the contents of each book provided with each one.
They make for a great adventure, filled with romance, daring, honour and revenge. I am sure all who read it will have their own favourite characters as there are many that stand out over the trilogy.

I truly believe that everybody has at least one good book in them, whether it be what they have done in life, how they work, breeding animals or just about a fantasy or fictional story. Just write it down for somebody to read, perhaps it will inspire someone else to do something with their lives and become just that little bit more than they would have been.