My writing process is organic. Once the seed of inspiration is sown I run with the flow to see where it takes me. This provides the opportunity for both the reader and myself to be surprised and delighted by the outcome.
I put the initial draft away for a while, review and redraft until it is the best I can make it, share it with first readers, then redraft again and again until I am ready to release it.

Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' is one of the most memorable. It opened a door in my mind to the world of science fiction and fantasy. While I have tried my hand at science fiction, my heart embraces the fantasy side of this genre.

I try to create a cover which encapsulates what the book is about. I use photographs rather than graphic images to produce a more authentic feel. I aim to produce covers which invite readers into the world inside the book.

These vary from time to time. At the moment my favorites include:
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula le Guin
A Song Among The Stones by Kenneth Steven
These are the ones I have read and reread and will reread again. There is always something new to find in them and to learn from them. They take me into old/new ways of seeing, reading and writing about the world.

I read a mixture of fantasy and poetry both traditional and modern.

I first started writing in the 1990s and soon discovered that I was an enigma. I read fantasy and wrote poetry. I have since mixed and matched the two and finally come up with a way of fusing them.

Masquerade, my latest book evolved over the past 18 months since visiting Barcelona to see Gaudi's architectural designs. They kick-started a new stream of thought which meshed with a number of other ideas which had been circulating in my head.

I wanted to produce a complete product from start to finish in the same way that an artist produces a painting. I also wanted to reduce the time between creation and publication, and to reach a global market.

Smashwords provides a platform for me to connect with readers across the world. It enables people to access my work at a reasonable price, in a place and time to suit themselves.

They complete the picture by bringing life to my words through reading and talking about them. They motivate me to keep writing.

I am starting another fantasy poetry sequence based in a part of the world I have yet to visit.

My desk is a space big enough to take pen and pad of paper; my knee, the car, the kitchen table, the floor in the lounge, the computer table. I write freehand first wherever and whenever I can. One of my dreams is to move to a larger house with a separate writing room.
I wrote a piece about this for an M.A. assignment and decided that the best option would be a hut on wheels so that I could live/write in different locations. A motorhome perhaps?