I am an ageing bloke with aspirations to write a blockbusting series of novels. Eventually I would like to be able to live off the earnings from my work and live far from the madding crowd.
I enjoy listening, looking, tasting, touching and smelling as well as over-indulging in reading, eating, drinking and world domination, although this latter hobby is confined to the virtual world of the computer.
Currently inhabiting the ordinary world.
It all started many years ago, when, as a child of about nine or ten, I started writing war stories and collaborating on humorous plays with my younger sister. A few years later, when at comprehensive school, I consistently got high marks for my English lesson essays. One I remember in particular received nine-and-a-half out of ten because, and I quote ‘no-one gets ten out of ten for essays’.
I remember I enjoyed writing them as well, which obviously contributed to the high standard. Needless to say I got an ‘A’ in my English language ‘O’ Level. However, when choosing my ‘A’ Levels, and not really knowing what career to choose at that age, I thought I wanted to get into the scientific route to follow my father and his interest in botany. Consequently my obvious area of skill was ignored and I was advised to take three scientific subjects, which, in retrospect, I believe was bad advice.
However, my interest in writing did not come to an end, and it was during my first spell at university that I started writing again, concentrating on a new found interest, science fiction/fantasy.
The intervening years between dropping out of university and now saw me sporadically pursuing this creative urge with letters to friends, short stories, sketches, poems and song lyrics as I drifted from job to job.
All right, so that’s the romantic version of my writing life. All of them have some basis in the truth (especially the nine-and-half bit), unfortunately I rarely finished anything I started. I know if I actually have some task that must be finished, I am more likely to make the effort than for something written purely for my own pleasure. Also, as I am one of those people who say ‘I could do better than that’ on seeing some particularly bad sitcom or Hollywood conveyor-belt film, I want to prove it.
Therefore, over the years I have built up quite a bit of work and thought it about time to share.
M. Robert Gibson 