Out soon!
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About me
Born in Cumbria, UK, I moved to Leicestershire twenty-five years ago. I am married with two teenage boys. My day job is one that does not involve much in the way of creativity, at least, not to the same extent that writing does.
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Aside from writing, I enjoy travelling, both in the UK and abroad. A keen caravanner, we have taken the van up to Scotland, down to Cornwall, and across to France and Spain. I also enjoy cooking, especially something with a bit of spice.
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Of course, to write you must first read. My favourite authors include Charles Dickens, Michael Jecks and Susanna Gregory.
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My first book, Ditch Road, was completed in August 2020, after eight weeks of writing. I was delighted when I finished - I had done it, I was an author. I started the editing process, and then I lost heart in the project. Why? I knew the book had flaws. The plot was good, the characters were great, but the biggest problem was I had written two books as one; I did not want to admit to myself I had messed up. It took me eight months, where the book sat untouched, to come to the realisation I would have to write another book to finish the first.
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So I did. And four weeks later, I finished the new book, Beatings, Blows & Broken Bones. I had the characters I had developed for the first project. and I loved being with them once more. Yes, I changed a few things, like their names (three times) but they were the same characters, and it is a pure delight writing their story.
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I had another book in mind, one that linked the first two books. I wrote The Curse Tablet during Nanowrimo in November 2021. It was again a pleasure to reacquaint myself with my characters, discovering more about Layla as I wrote.
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I had an idea for another book that would follow immediately after Beatings, Blows and Broken Bones. I couldn't wait to complete it - it's called Miasma of Fear.
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My next project is a companion novel to Miasma of Fear, The Way of Death. It's set a few years later, during the Antonine plague that ravaged London.
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Inspiration
Why ROman Britain?
Have I always been fascinated by all things Roman? No - I live close to where two Roman roads meet: Fosse Way and Watling Street. On old maps, it is marked as Venones, now High Cross, but nothing now links to the Roman period, just lorries thundering along the A5. The Fosse Way heading south to meet Watling Street is a mere a bridle way, nothing more.
It is not clear exactly where the two roads intersected, but a monument was erected in 1711 to mark the approximate spot. It was damaged by lightening and all that remains now is a weathered and badly repaired lump of sandstone. An inscription on it once read, 'If traveller, you search for the footsteps of the ancient Romans, here you may behold them'.
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What would it have been like, two thousand years ago, when the legions marched past? It set my mind thinking....
Why 160ad?
I did not want to write about the Romans going to war. Others have done that, and done it well. I wanted to look at what life would be like for those in towns, in a time of peace. Well, not too much peace, that would make a dull book. So there is a murder or two, but how did they track down the murderer without DNA or CCTV? Well, there is a challenge.
They say write what you know about. did you?
No. I knew nothing about Roman history before I started. I have had to do a lot of research. It has been interesting, but also thrown up one or two curve balls. There are some concepts the Romans had, including such basic things such as the family structure, which do not translate into the world we know. I have had to make some compromises for the sake of the story.
did it make writing difficult?
You bet. Slavery was a big issue I had to think about, and how I could broach the issue in the novel. There is no escaping the fact the Roman Empire ran on slaves. It may be an awful, abhorrent, detestable fact, but it is a fact. Do I deal with it or ignore it? Ignoring it would be easy, but wrong. So I included reference to slavery, but some of the details that I did uncover in my research I decided were not for inclusion in the book; they were too horrific.
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What's the best thing about writing?
Being your own god. My world, my rules. I want to change the name of a character. Done. I want a character to die brutally after being stripped naked - any volunteers? No, good - my choice anyway.
