I went to the University of Sussex at the age of 28. My plan on graduating was to find a vocation that helped the planet and society.
I tried Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, even politics and government – nothing doing. I spent a year homeless in London as I looked for a career. I never slept rough; I had enough friends to sofa-surf, spending a couple of nights in each. But a year was enough.
After that I took myself off. First to Europe; teaching English in Oporto in Portugal, Munich and then Rome and when I got tired of that, I went off to San Francisco where I discovered baseball which became a lifelong passion.
I was born in the year of the sheep, which in some versions is called the goat. The main thing the Chinese say about goats is that you have to tether them well or they tend to wander off – that’s me.
I didn’t intend stopping my exploration of the planet when I returned in my 40s from San Francisco but I discovered Housing Associations and got myself a home and a proper job housing the homeless, I’m not sure how.
I had always read science fiction and fantasy – series after series, I just gobbled it up. So when I found myself kicked out of work at 60, (most unreasonable) I tried my hand at writing. It’s been a slow process – there is a lot to learn. I don’t draw up a plan, I write by the seat of my pants, and that creates its own problems. I’m always rushing through, dying to find out what happens next. Then it’s the long haul editing in all the bits I skipped. Even now in my 80s I am still learning, but writing every day has kept me going through all the ups and downs and I have found my happy place.
I write stories I myself would like to read and I hope you will like them too.