What motivated you to become an indie author?
There's a good question! And there's no real one answer. It's perhaps easiest to say that it was due to finding my voice during the first years of the 21st century, but that hides a lot of the truth. Of course, when I started writing the Internet was still in its infancy, not to mention the vast amount of time I spent in South America. Secondly there's the issue of finding an agent, which in my view means playing the field and I've always been resolute on standing with my back to ivory towers... or at least definitely those of literature.
I was strongly influenced by the idea that you should write what you know. I stepped out into the world to know something, wrote about it and realised that's where my voice was. From that point, it was a straight line to the world that fascinated me most. I'd hate to be writing about writing. That's the same quagmire that the press got into. And if you look at the press and mass media today, they've been cut out of the interesting material and are slowly drifting towards their own isolation and permanent introspection.
What do you read for pleasure?
I read anything that takes my fancy. Of course, if you knew me, you'd know that's a pretty limited selection. I generally buy somewhere in the region of four to seven books at a time, knowing full well that I'll only really find some interest in one or two. I've got over the habit of buying one must-read, as they tend to just languish. I guess you could call this serendipitous, or eclectic. At any rate, I've found it the best way to encounter new and interesting reads in the short-term, and an even more rewarding way of building a library, as each title from a single shop becomes interrelated, you know, this was the best, this was the surprise, etc. And as a group they also say a lot about the personal themes of my life at a given period.
Read more of this interview.