Some time ago … in a place far, far, away (Manchester to be precise) I was not aware of it at the time but that story writing competition when I was about 14 or 15 started it all. “It was midnight in the library, and all was quiet and dark” was the line given and we had to create a story from it. My entry was about secret codes and treasure. I won joint first prize. My teacher and head of year both said it was good but quite complicated. Things never change.
January 1995
Trance
Aged eighteen, after working in insurance for a couple of years, I decided to see if I could write a book. I was heavily into Alistair MacLean at the time so wanted to write a thriller. Working full time, I was writing long hand in a notebook whenever I could. The family thought I was stupid, but I persevered. I could not type but knew I would have to convert the notebooks into a manuscript. I used my sister’s Petite typewriter using the one finger technique and broke it in so had to buy her a new one. The resultant manuscript was very messy and only single lined spaced. I knew no better and was just proud to have finished it. It only took a year to write the story but about three to type it out. The story was about a young man who witnesses a kidnapping and ends up fighting against a criminal hypnotist. They say at that age you write a few years younger than you are so instead of a cutting thriller it read like a Famous Five book. Not that I realised that then. I had a finished book but no idea what to do with it. Oh, for a mentor. I stumbled along. A letter to a paperback publisher led to a reply telling me to try hardback houses. A trip to the library then to find an address from one of their books. It was rejected and because I did not know the ropes I thought that was it, so the manuscript went into a drawer. It would have stayed there if not for falling foul of the vanity publishing game a few years later. Suffice to say, a bank loan of £4,700 – which was allegedly only half the publishing costs – bought me 500 hardback copies. Two years later the publisher had sold 72. My royalties £250.
February 2000
Trouble Cross
Five years later I tried again, after I lost my job due to redundancy. At my previous office I had had a little success at making people laugh with short spoofs about people in the office. This had led to my only ever commission – unpaid though it was. A colleague told me her boyfriend was a James Bond fan and asked me to write a spoof for her to give to him. This led to the short comedic story ‘Doctor, Oh No!’ which they were so pleased with that they made a feature of it by sticking the pages up on their spare bedroom wall. After I lost my job I thought, why not write a comedy thriller. It took four years, by which time I had moved to London to find a job. This time the manuscript was legible and double lined spaced. It was no longer possible to write direct to publishers, you had to attract the interest of a literary agent. After several rejections this too went into a drawer. This was titled Tommy Trouble at the time.
March 2004
Rewind
Four years later I was writing again but this was a different story. Fed up with life and I wanted to turn back the clock and start again but I did not have access to a DeLorean so I decided to write about what might happen instead. Another four years writing but again no luck in attracting an agent. My bottom draw was so full of manuscripts now there was no room for my last Rolos collection.
April 2012
Lost in the Amazon Jungle
Fast forward to 2012. A colleague had found out about my novels and wanted to read one. She was giggling over it in the office, and someone suggested I publish it on Kindle, so in December 2012 Rewind and Trouble Cross (the new name for Tommy Trouble) became e-books on Amazon. There have been sales and some nice reviews but not enough. I proved, as I had always known, that I am not a salesman.
May 2019
Once Upon A Week
In 2019 I decided to work on an idea I had sketched out years ago and Once Upon A Week was born. Currently my only kids book. A small collection of seven stories based on proverbs which I thought parents could read to their kids, one per night for a week, hence the title. This too I published on Amazon via KDP after the usual round of rejections. Again, there were sales and complimentary reviews but not enough.
June 2020
One Into Three
In 2020, I came across a professional review of Trouble Cross from 2013 that I never knew existed. It was complimentary but the reviewer suggested the narrative was too complex and I should take out the back story and Doctor, Oh No, which I had interwoven into the story as the main character writes it during the narrative. A bit late but I cut down the main story and republished under the title Pratt, Pratt, Wally and Pratt Investigate. I was loathe to just forget the 20,000 words I cut out so I also published Doctor, Oh No as a standalone spoof and the back story also as a short introductory tale.
June 2023
The Whole in One
In 2023, with a zero birthday looming, I had the bright idea of publishing an omnibus of all my work so far. Obviously, it was multi-genre and I laid it out chronologically with a background to each. I did not rewrite anything even though Trance could have used it. I wanted it to be a compete and honest anthology of my writing journey.
June 2024
The Puzzle
In 2024, I published my latest novel. The one I had been destined to write. Again, it was an idea that first came to me years earlier. I had already created the crossword back in the 90’s and still had it. Unfortunately, I had lost all the clues so had to rewrite these and there were over 150, the crossword grid being twenty-seven by twenty-seven. This would be my fastest produced novel. Even though I had made attempts over the years to start it, I had never got further than one chapter. Now I ploughed ahead and wrote the bulk of it in a year. It was my best yet and reluctant to self-publish again, I spent three years sending it around the agents. Again, with no takers it ended up going the KDP route. Sales are not what I hoped but the feedback is good, and I even have a celebrity endorsement from John Burton who plays Sergeant Goodfellow in Father Brown.
And that is my story … so far. Happy reading.