In the late 1970s I was an ‘aspiring author’ and living in Islington in North London. My hobby at the time was tropical fish and I had some specialist interests. I submitted a couple of articles to the “Aquarist and Pondkeeper Monthly” and they were accepted and published. My interest in fish keeping was superseded by hobbyist computing when I purchased an Acorn Atom in 1980. I knew nothing about programming computers at the time but quickly learnt. I started to discover things and began writing for Computing Today magazine. With sales of home computers booming there was a thirst from publishers for books and I was approached by various publishers to submit books ideas. Very soon I found I was earning enough from writing to take it on full-time which I did for the next 20 years!

I have always been an Indie author -- in fact I was an Indie author long before print-on-demand and eBooks became fashionable. I would guess I was one of the very first writers to self-publish. In the mid 1980’s I won the ‘Desktop Publishing Journalist of the Year Award’ and was becoming rather fed-up that my book proposals were often rejected. My best friend and I decided to take things into our own hands and so Dabs Press was formed (Dabs - David Atherton, Bruce Smith) and we started writing and publishing our own books under the series names Dabhand Guides. Some years later as dabs started to concentrate more on online electrical retail I formed Bruce Smith Books (BSB) and have been publishing my own books ever since.

I must admit I have only recently started to use Smashwords as an outlet for my books and will be adding more in due course. Time will tell but the distribution reach is large and with quality publications then success should be assured.

For me it is almost an addiction. I love writing and researching topics and knowing that the final product will help others learn something new and wondrous.For me there is more joy in starting the first words in a new book than seeing the first published copies of the last!

My readers mean success for me. Without someone to buy the books I write there would be no benefit to anyone and therefore no joy. Writing is my main source of income so, in a impracticable sense, they also mean my livelyhood. I get a lot of emails and I always enjoy reading them and try to answer as best I can.

I have two books on the go for the Raspberry Pi and also the fourth draft of my first novel. the first of the Raspberry Pi books will take me about two months to complete, the novel has been in the process for about three years!

In no particular order: Stephen Baxter, Ian Rankin and Michael Ridpath at present in that I will always automatically buy the next book they publish. But there are many others I will always seek out.

I am up by 530 most mornings - I have two young children so it is not so much inspiration as necessity!

Family and reading I guess. I love sport and getting out in the summer. Living in Sydney now we are spoil for choice in terms of beaches and days out locally. You never have to worry about the weather too much!

Recommendation mostly.

The first article I ever had published was about fishkeeping! Tropical fish!

For my non fiction books, once I have an idea or angle for a book I formulate the contents list in my head - I rarely put anything down in writing. The contents list to me is my route map because each chapter and subsection determines what will be discussed in both. I use Scrivener as a writing tool. I will research each chapter as I write and progress through the book that way. I don't have any hard and fast word targets on a day or week basis I just work to get as much done as I can.
Fiction: My biggest issue sis that I don't yet have a routine and my non-fiction method clearly does not work. Once I do find a method that suits me I am sure it will be a lot easier!