I am editing The Weavers of Time, a Viking fantasy of 198,000 words for Smashwords.

Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and the other Russian masters. I also like the novels of H.G.Wells and John Wyndham, while I cut my writer's teeth, aged 14 on Denis Wheatley! I do not like Tolstoy or Wells as people however, because they treated their nearest and dearest abominably.

Bright sunshine certainly helps:) Like Rousseau, Hazlitt and many another writer, I like to go walking in the countryside where I get the time and inspiration to think of my characters and stories. The thought of a walk in the fresh air in glorious sunshine is certainly inspiration enough to get out of bed. And as time passes so quickly, each day is ever more precious.

I like walking and jogging, I play the piano and compose music and songs and I read avidly. I have a large Napoleonic library and I love reading about Nature, space travel and the evolution of Early man.

I trawl through the internet, use Wikipedia and chase up any references I get from the TV and radio. References in history books lead me to new writers I have never encountered before - particularly in the case of memoirs.

Vaguely, it was a romance I began at the age of fourteen about a girl I fancied at the time!

It is hard to say in a phrase. I often spent years in the past while employed as a teacher, planning books and stories and seldom getting the chance to complete them. Since I set up my own writing and photography business Souladream Productions in November 2011, I can now concentrate on my work. I have loads of book and stories to work upon and I am never short of ideas.

I can't recall the very first book I read, but I do recall as a child listening to stories read to me by my parents, my grandmother and teachers at school. I always loved listening to stories. They helped broaden my mind and stimulate my imagination. Many of the subjects that interested me as a child still interest me today - especially Nature, dinosaurs, Native American culture etc.

I try to create a stimulating and arresting image. With my horror novels this is easy because of the plethora of superb Victorian cemeteries and graveyards in England! It is harder to invent a cover for history or romance novels as there is so much that has already been used to promote such books. I prefer paintings by great artists as a rule.

My favorite book of all is the account by Sergeant Bourgogne of his retreat from Moscow during Napoleon's infamous 1812 campaign. As a study of raw nature and the unconquerability of the human spirit, it is unmatched in my opinion. He marched for weeks through the worst Russian winter in 100 years, starving and often alone, at the mercy of the elements, the wild beasts of the forests and the Russian Cossacks. It is a miracle he survived to tell his tale!

I fell in love with War and Peace when I was 20 years old, reading it for up to 11 hours a day. Natasha and Prince Andrei were my favourite characters. However, Tolstoy's Napoleon was little more than a cartoon figure - even the great master did not understand Napoleon.

History books, especially about Napoleon; books about wild animals and Nature in general; the American Civil War; the English Civil War; Evolution and Early Man. I seldom read novels - although I love writing my own!