With my focus on writing the sequel to Wicked Game and keeping the marketing plan going, it’s sometimes difficult to find the time to sit down and complete written interviews. Add to this, recent exciting developments that resulted in me signing up with Literary Agents Watson Little and, as I am sure you can imagine, time has been of the essence.

But I did make the time and I’m glad I did. Taking a few minutes to think about what motivates me, why I sit at the PC for hours, why I drive for hours to visit  settings to write about and why I put up with the isolation is brought into context when I get a chance to review how things are going. I’m learning as I progress, and each step is a big one.

I hope you enjoy this. It was completed for Fraser from @feedmyreads who has now interviewed quite a few authors. Thanks Fraser, I was honoured to be asked to contribute.

 That’s a tough one as I have eclectic taste. As a young man I enjoyed Tolkien, but as I have aged my tastes have changed. I used to read Lee Child a lot and have many of the Gerald Seymour books, I especially enjoyed ‘Harry’s Game’. Female authors, I favour Amanda Prowse, who manages to take a reader into the nature of relationships like no other I have read. Overall though, if I were sent away with one book I would take a Ken Follet novel… but I might try and smuggle one by Stephen Leather in my suitcase.

What is your favourite book and why?

 Now that is an even harder question for a Piscean like me. I think I would have to pick the book that started me writing and that would be James Patterson’s ‘Along came a spider’ , a thriller that kept me turning the pages. Patterson was a significant influence on me when I started to put pen to paper myself.

Which of your books you have written is your favourite and why?

 Not hard, as only my debut novel is in print. I started ‘Wicked Game‘ on a bit of a whim. I had never started out with an intention to write but, whilst undergoing treatment for PTSD I used to have to write down my thoughts and experiences before counselling sessions as I would, at first, be overwhelmed by emotion when trying to talk. My counsellor commented favourably on my writing style and that started me thinking. So, I started weaving the notes into a story… and the book developed. The reception it has received has been quite humbling, but the effect of writing it was, for me, very cathartic.

Other than your writing & reading what do you like to do?

 Too many hobbies and not enough time! I own an old Harley Davidson that I like to get out on when the weather is good, which isn’t too often here in Wales. I learned to scuba dive three years ago, in the Red Sea, and now also dive in UK waters. I’m away this very weekend to Lundy Island off the Devon coast to try and meet up with some seals. 

I write articles for a couple of magazines as a sideline but a lot of my time is taken up with my four best mates, three spaniels and a labrador. They get me out around the fields three times a day. I always take a dictafone with me, to record ideas that come to me as I walk, and to describe things that I see. Very often, these recordings find there way into a book or article.If you could recommend 3 books what would they be & why?