We love hearing what our authors have to say, as they are all such wonderfully different, intelligent people. So we decided to run a series of question based blog posts! Here we go!
Kerrith Fraser – Author of Adventure of Zinzi and Zebu
Simply can’t help but write – the words want out and onto a page! However, my niece and nephew wanted to hear more about our exciting adventures in the bush where we encountered African creatures of every size. We had long stories to divulge once we were home and had to retell them often.
Ros Roberts – Nila’s Adventures in London
I always wanted to write an adult book but when my first granddaughter was stillborn at 23 weeks I decided I would like to write a book in memory of her. She was called Nila because before my daughter and son-in-law knew the sex they had Noah for a boy and Isla for a girl. I now have a healthy granddaughter so the book is also for Ava.
Aaron Moffat – Too Clever by a half
I’ve always enjoyed creating characters and writing dialogue and adventures for them. The characters often seem to take on a life of their own. It’s fun.
Jean Daish – Operation Pied Piper / Operation Dynamo
My wish to write literature for children came with the pending birth of my first Grandchild, 22 years ago. So I joined a class 'Writing for Children' at a college in Winslow, Bucks. I stayed with the class for 20 years and made many friends. I was taught to write articles, poetry and stories and used my local Parish Magazine to practise my efforts.
Dicksie Moss – The Finding of Kitty Baloo
A throw away remark by a relative during our silver wedding celebrations in 1989 who said: ‘Your children should know what your life was like when you were growing up, you write poetry, why not a book?
· Since then I have written a trilogy of memoirs of my life in Post war Britain, first of which was published in 1992 (the remaining two are written in manuscript form)
· Two novels with a supernatural theme also in manuscript form.
· A comedy themed travel tales (in progress)
· Compilation of verses for children aged 8 to 18 with supernatural theme (manuscript and disc 9,600 words)
John Mullen - Death Rate, The Snows of Sierra, Maranatha, The ravensdale Conspiracy, (Soon to be published) The Wainwrights.
Fascinated by the history of Spain which led to my first novel 'The Pillars of Hercules'.
Aaron Byrne – The Path of Revenge
I have loved writing since I was a young boy, even though those pieces were only a few pages long, I fell in love with writing! To have ideas that have been bouncing around in your head printed on paper is a very satisfying and exciting thing. One day, instead of just giving up on the story, I kept writing, and writing until I knew that the story would develop into a much bigger thing than my previous works.
Dennis Talbot – A Small Price to pay, Sir? / Best Foot Forward, Ellingham / Look Lively, Ellingham
In my twenties I found and fell in love with, the Jeeves & Wooster novels of P G Wodehouse, again written in the first person. I suppose they were the inspiration for my characters, Josh Tolson & Ellingham. A lifetime of working with and talking to, amazing, clever, funny, ordinary people created the inspiration, retirement provided the time.
James A. Parmelee - I Challenge! Pure Thought Essays On The Way Things Really Are (Or Might Be)
I felt qualified to challenge some popular conceptions that I felt to be erroneous or incomplete.
Daniel Walsch – Musings
At this point, I have had the good fortune of having nine books published. In each case, I took a crack at them because I felt I had something to say. Having said that, I am the first to admit my judgment in that regard may not be one shared by others. Still, I was driven by my inner voice that compelled me to put pen to paper.
Kerry Barnes – Ruthless / Ruby’s Palace
I have always written stories, but at school it was difficult because I was dyslexic and I couldn’t understand why I got low grades in English and neither could the teachers. They didn’t understand dyslexia back then. They loved my stories but the pages were plagued with red corrections. I wrote my first novel when I was twenty, by hand on A4 paper. It was called, ‘Deceit in a perfect world’. I lost it before I ever owned a computer. I am rewriting it now. Then I wrote another book called Solomon, but when I read other books, I felt I wasn’t good enough to have mine published. My vocabulary was limited and I tended to write how I speak. Then one day I picked up a gangland thriller novel and it was then that I realised I could write a book because it was written how I had written my books. So I then began ‘Ruthless’ and once I had finished that book, I went on to write more.
Charlotte Sebag-Montefiore – Who am I?
I never set out to write a book, I just started writing.
Ramdeo Ramsoondar - The Golf Swing Manual, (coming soon) A Golf Match Amid Wedding Bells
I love to share my knowledge.
Christa Edwards – The Zizi Stories
My grandchildren had asked me for a number of years to write the stories, I used to tell them, but I was always too busy. And it was only when I went back to Germany that I found the time to write. I printed five copies with the illustrations myself.
Beau Bridgland – Day-to-Day Happiness
Firstly, I love helping people and I want to be able to help anyone struggling with depression, anxiety and low self-esteem because I know from my personal experience with them how horrible they are. A few years ago at a voice acting convention in California called VOICE 2012 (Voice-Over International Creative Experience) I met and became good friends with a wonderful woman named Penny Abshire. She runs a popular Facebook group called "Positive Thinkers Unite" and so I told her all about my feelings on depression, anxiety, self-esteem and being positive. We got along really well and she suggested I write a book. Though it didn't feel right at the time to do so, I did always keep the idea in the back of my mind. Last year I reached a personal crossroads and the time finally felt right to do the book. I sat down and worked really intensely on it and not long after I had a book. Penny even wrote the foreword.
