Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I was born in northern NSW and raised in Sydney, At high school I hated English, but I had been encouraged by my mother from an early age to read, and developed a voracious appetite for all sorts of books, magazines, just about anything with printing on a page.
All through my life I have filed away, in my memory bank of useless trivia, life experiences, and these I draw upon for inspiration. The Dancing Man came from an idea from my plumbing days. Promi$e$ has been influenced by my experiences with the Christian Church. The idea for Rogue Element began in the late 60's with some 'heavy shit' hitting the streets of Sydney. The incidents surrounding the Hilton Hotel bombing raised questions in my mind that have never been fully answered.
When did you first start writing?
I was first encouraged to write by my Adult Ed English teacher in the late 1970's. She paid me the compliment by telling me that when she sat down to mark the 50 or so essays each week, she set mine aside, and when she got sick of reading the same stuff, she read mine, knowing that my different perspective and writing style would motivate her to complete the task. It wasn't until the 80's that I began writing seriously, initially as therapy following my marriage breakdown. The initial draft of my first novel took 10 days for 60,000 words. since then I have written 5 novels and a couple of novellas along with well over a hundred short stories.
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