abouT me
My first attempt at writing a “bio” ended up resembling a CV. I realised, following input from my best friend/marketing
manager (I give him the title as he works for free!), that this page should probably show its audience (you guys)
a bit of my personality. I thought professional was the way forward, but for now I bow to his years of experience. After all his
own CV includes inventing Mars Bar Vodka and pulling a sickie claiming to have broken a leg. Why wouldn't I take his advice?
So here is attempt number two. Where to begin? How about the start? Seems conventional. I was born in '81 in Torquay,
which I think the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Europe? My mum was only seventeen when she squeezed me out
(adding weight to the above theory!) I had a modest upbringing, not a lot of cash in the homestead but plenty of affection.
At school I had a hell of a lot less love given to me. I was bullied incessantly, probably due to poor hygiene. (Why didn't
someone teach me to wash?) As a consequence of this I bunked off whenever possible. When I did attend I rebelled and
got myself kicked out of lessons. I also went through most of the normal adolescent rebellious acts. Stealing the odd
mars bar and the like. (the real low point was when I shoplifted a Michael Bolton album, To be honest if I asked Michael
nicely he probably would have just given it to me.) but to cut a long story short (and use a cliché in the process)
I didn’t do well at school.
Let’s fast forward a bit – past all of the years of jobs, that whilst good, never really made me feel I was achieving all I could. I found myself working in a school as a teaching assistant. Quite how they managed to justify letting me have that position
with my qualifications I’ll never know. At the risk of casting unfair aspersions it was an all-female panel and I was having an exceptional hair day.
I have been in education ever since and managed to pick up a BA in literature along the way. (Sure I’ve skipped over my
some fairly salacious gossip, but I'll save that for my autobiography).
My degree focused on Creative Writing, this has always been a passion of mine. Even in my spare time as
a teen me and my best mate would sit in the kitchen and co-write hilarious, nonsensical romps revolving around
being locked in a school with Bulgarian football icon Trifon Ivanov (seriously, don’t ask! Unless you want to.) The degree awakened
in me what I knew already existed, a desire to write. To try and affect people’s emotions with words.
It was during my degree that I seriously considered I could write novels. I was getting high marks for my creative writing pieces and was daring to dream that I could do this for a living. I can’t yet, but I’m hoping one day I’ll do just that. This website and blog are just the start of that journey. I’m currently about one fifth of the way through the first draft of a comedy novel. I want it to be the male equivalent of “chick lit” I tried giving the genre a name, but everything I came up with was way too rude.
I'm a family man and I'm incredibly proud of my two children: Lacey and Eddison and my "step kids" Harry and Alex. I want them to be raised with an attitude that they can't fail if they don't give up and that's how I feel about my writing having been rejected for an MA in creative writing due to my portfolio, I'm now more determined than ever to make a career from writing. So please, read my blog, comment, feedback, follow me on twitter, follow me on Facebook, follow me back to my home if the mood takes you. But, please support a young man from humble beginnings trying to live his dream!