I grew up in West Cornwall in the 1950s. My earliest memory was of living in a wooden shack overlooking the sea. We had no electricity so no radio. TV arrived at t he end of the decade. My mother taught me to read and write before I went to school and I was an avid reader from then on.
We moved to London when I was thirteen. I started writing songs in my mid teens but thankfully none of them have survived. I was lucky that I lived in a part of West London that was the epicentre of the underground, roots/reggae and punk music scene in the late 60s and early 70s. Island Records were based nearby and it seemed that every street boasted a top band. I'm blessed with a good memory and as the years passed it became imperative to try and write it down. I made a couple of attempts about twenty years ago and again ten years ago when I was recovering from treatment for leukamia. Recent health issues have concentrated my mind somewhat and after discussions with my publisher we decided how to procede- not by more writing, but by editing what I'd written into a manageable form.

I started writing songs as a teenager. They were rubbish. In the mid seventies I was one of my band's songwriters. Most of the songs were the usual paranoid teen anguish and totally forgettable. Before you can say anything you have to have something to say.
I became a Christian in 1990 and the experience inspired me to write. Songs, sermons, magazine articles flowed from my pen. A lot of what I wrote back then has been used in my later books.

I've been recording and releasing albums of my mostly self written songs for the last twenty five years. Almost all of them have been self funded and distributed. I was on the books of a record company and released an album on their label back in the mid 90s but found the experience very restricting.
I enjoy the creative freedom of being an indie. Once i've completed a project i tend to lose interest and focus on the next, so promoting my work is a chore I'd rather pass over to someone else. I'm hopeful that Smashwords will help to fill in the gaps for me.

I've just finished a book about Derek Tompkins, a pioneer of the UK music scene in the 1960s, aided and abetted by his widow Mavis and another friend Roger. I knew Derek a little, having recorded at his studio in 1976 and again in 1981. I had to do a lot of research. I think I looked at every page of the local newspaper from 1961 to 1969. We interviewed many of his friends in order to get the timeline in the right order and made a number of discoveries. Did you know that at least two giants of the music industry, David Foster and Trevor Horn and two million selling rock superstars John Deacon of Queen and Whitesnake's Bernie Marsden all began their recording careers at his studio. If you want to know more you'll have to read the book! We're just about to start on the sequel which will take the story up to the late 1980s.

I write at the computer. I have one in my studio which has two screens and is useful for copying from one article to another but most of the time I use a laptop. Very often I wake up with an idea and get it written down while it's still fresh and file it away until it's needed.

Turning a jumbled string of thought into a finely crafted piece of work. Editing, honing, refining, choosing exactly the right word or word to express what I'm trying to say.

I started reading my mum's books as a young teenager and becam a fan of sci-fi. I've read most of the classic sci-fi and fantasy and my all time favourites are Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Philip K Dick. I have every one of Heinlein and Dick's books and most of Niven's and have read all of them at least twice.

I'm retired! If I fancy a lie in nobody's gonna stop me!

All my books to date have been autobiographical. I've lived a full life ( I'm 70) and have witnessed incredible changes, so many that the hardest part was getting them into a readable order. This is what I've done.
My music story is split into three volumes. The first covers my childhood up to 1974. The second covers the next ten years while the third brings my story right up to date. T
It's incredible how much the world of work has changed over the last fifty years. I've had many different jobs since leaving school and I've written it all down.
I became a Christian in 1990 and my experiences at the heart of the Christian music business inspired another book. I've also compiled a volume of my poetry, song lyrics and radio scripts to accompany a 4CD box set.
Finally, I've always been interested in my family history and have written an account of my Cornish family roots.

Thinking.
Playing music
And thinking.
Some people say I think too much.
I reply that they don't think enough.

Thankfully no

I'm used to designing my own album artwork, but that doesn't always translate into good book cover designs. I have an idea for my cover and pass it over to a designer to work his magic on.