In case you’re wondering, the above banner is a picture of a small section of my personal collection of books. I actually do have around a thousand. At the last count…

So far as I know, I am the first writer born into my family. I knew I wanted to write when I was about 6 and a primary school teacher explained that writers write the same book again and again before they get it right. I wondered how someone would have the patience to do that, but my mind was made up there and then that it was something I wanted to do.

It was years before I actually attempted it seriously. I was about 21 and thought I’d set a mystery book in Scotland. I’d recently seen the film Loch Ness and was intrigued enough by it to write something set there, only my story was nothing to do with the legendary creature, more to do with a chest and a ghost and the links between the two. I’ve looked back on it since and the writing was terrible, because I’d tried too hard. The story was good and I’ve made a half-hearted attempt at starting again, but it didn’t work as a gothic horror. Maybe I’ll go back to it at some point, because I still have faith in it as a potential murder mystery.

Later on, I began writing a book about a rock band, which took over. Then I wrote a sequel, because a minor character from that one decided (insisted) she had her own story to tell. And now I’ve written a third, and I’m already thinking about a fourth. It’s not just about rock music. Me being who I am, it’s about a mystery place, manipulative entities and ordinary but extraordinary people trying to get by in their own way and cope with what life throws at them, as well as having a busy career in the music industry. I get my information for these from the friends I have in the industry. Watching them is all the research that’s needed, along with reading a few biogs about David Bowie (my personal god). I’ve not deliberately gone out and researched – I’ve taken it all in over the course of my whole life.

I’ve written a book set partly in China and partly in the UK, which needs to be edited again. I wrote a kung fu adventure-mystery-fairy tale for NaNoWriMo 2009, which I’m in the process of distributing among my kung fu friends. I wrote another one for NaNoWriMo 2010 (but that one’s not finished). NanoWriMo 2011 and 2012 I used to finish one book and start rewriting another one, respectively.

I have been a freelance proofreader since September 2006, and am now looking to extend my client base. If you need, or know anyone who needs, a proofreader, leave a note for me here.

And for the last five years, I’ve been a member of the Fujian White Crane Kung Fu club in Islington. I no longer live in London but still travel from the coast as often as possible, as my instructor is the best and our lineage can be traced back more than 400 years. I have learnt so much about myself since I began training: I’ve become fitter, healthier, more determined, more confident and more patient. It has truly changed my life and I am a better person for it.