I grew up in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. My hometown, Westville, was a declining coal-mining town though I didn't realise it at the time. Small towns feature in my writing, along with more rural areas - rivers, hills, back roads. I couldn't imagine writing a story set in a city yet. When I consider childhood backstories, winter activities predominate - snow forts, pond-hockey, jumping from buildings into large snow banks. I've now lived out of Nova Scotia for almost half my life, but I still feel very much a Nova Scotian boy.

I enjoyed writing at school and experimented with short stories in Junior High school. I kept journals even through university but wrote much more in them once I moved overseas to New Zealand. I've periodically developed short stories for my own enjoyment or for teaching. I've always wanted to write novels but have only recently been able to accomplish this.

Te Kauhanga is a small town buried deep in the Central North Island of New Zealand. It is very ordinary town except for its iconic tree of Taumata Hill - an enormous tree, in fact the largest tree in the world. While a debate rages in the town about the Council's proposal to fell the tree, the lives of our three main characters intersect with one another: Montreal Perec, the reclusive cartographer who, for three decades, has been searching for the treasure of his Canadian ancestors; Sharon Pellerine, a former archivist from Wellington whose pleasant demeanor as a Council receptionist hides a shady secret; and Stanley Kowalcyzk, an insurance adjuster with an obsession with straight lines and a weakness for women.

I did try and publish my novel with some large and small publishing houses, both in New Zealand and in Canada, but with little response and no success. I researched indie publishing and was impressed by the benefits and the challenge of it as much as I was by the independence of it. I was also reading a book about the founders of Google at the time and was inspired by alternative ways of thinking. I also did not want to wait while I continued to send manuscripts away - I wanted to publish this first novel and then get onto the next one. "Redeeming Brother Murrihy" is a novel I had to write first - but now I'm writing more.

I haven't had many sales via Smashwords. However, my primary motive for using Smashwords was to get the book on iTunes. I use iTunes to download books and thought more people would too. I also liked the marketing strategy of being able to advertise the book in multiple places.

The excitement I feel during each of the stages. I get excited by new ideas and connections. It is hard work to pull all of the ideas together and then research more as you go, but when I finally started writing, the pleasure (and obsession) grew and I found it easier to throw myself into it each day. It's a new lifestyle for me - I want to do this for a long time.

I find it difficult to think I have "fans", LOL. I do have followers on Twitter and on Facebook - mainly family and friends. It means an awful lot to know that anyone is interested in the work and the progress I am making. I'm not aiming for fans - I'm aiming for readers, conversation partners who would like to engage in the themes and characters of the work.

I'm writing some short stories for some competitions here in New Zealand. I've started recording ideas for my next two novels - one which will follow in a similar but different vein to "Te Kauhanga" and another which will be aimed at a YA readership.

John Steinbeck. William Shakespeare. Joseph Conrad. James K Baxter. Kurt Vonnegut. TS Eliot. Margaret Atwood. Harper Lee. JD Salinger.

Getting out of bed is hard, because I do my work late at night. But I have a terrific day-job (I teach English), a cool family and a supportive rural New Zealand lifestyle. I have everything I need to make it work now - it's up to me. And I pray. Seriously, I really do.

Work, family, friends. Watching ice-hockey online. Listening to Bruce Springsteen.