An Overview of My Writing Career
I've always written, as far as I can recall. In my teens I started writing for fanzines and moved up to the semi-professional arena as time went on. The modern equivalent would be webzines or blogging for free, I suppose. That led to a number of published pieces including articles and fiction.
And then I went and decided I wanted to be a writer.
That was 1993. I remember chucking down some godawful fantasy drek and telling my wife I could do better in an afternoon. 'Go on then,' she said sympathetically. So I tried. Well, it took a year to complete the book, which (after a series of incarnations and revisions) eventually became the gunpowder-fantasy In Glory Die.
Next I began work on what became Behind the Throne, a pseudo-medieval fantasy with mysticism but no magic as such. That got hung up for a while to work on another piece, which eventually became A Brevet for the Guillotine. That one is a Napoleonic adventure, and it attracted interest from MacMillan books. The editor who liked it left just after I sent it in, so it came back (gah) so I presented it to the Maggie Noach Literary Agency.
The agency took the project on but for reasons that remain unclear I was dropped from the client list soon afterwards - and just after being assured that this would not happen. In a fit of annoyance I came up with the concept for The Art of Surviving in Supply Teaching. I pitched it and got a contract. This was September 1996.
In the interim I'd had a Traveller: The New Era novel accepted by GDW, who went out of business immediately afterwards (and at that point, I did begin to wonder if I was some sort of cosmic instrument of disaster). At around the same time as the teaching book was accepted I began outlining another Traveller novel. This one is still about halfway finished, having gone through several revisions and new versions. I might finish it someday, I guess...
By 1999 I was in a position to turn professional as a writer. Most of my work was for mainstream clients; I was doing a lot of technical writing at that time. By the early 2000s my main client was the SMi Group, for whom I was originally a technical journalist writing strategic reports. I spoke at some of their conventions; chairing one, and organised another in my role as their odd-job-man. As they wound down their publishing arm I edited the last 21 SMi reports to go to market, which kept me gainfully employed for about half a year.
Next, I made the mistake of working with a client that still owes me a great deal of money. They became virtually my only job for a while, so when they decided not to pay me for my work it... raised issues. Fortunately, in the meantime I had begun working with Amber Books. My first work-for-hire for Amber Books was in 2004, and within a couple of years they had become my main client and then pretty much my day job.I've done dozens of books for Amber, with more to come. Working with a book packager can be stressful, since the deadlines range from ridiculously tight to insane, but if you're good and quick it's quite fun. Amber Books are great to work with, not least because they pay on time. As a freelancer, I like that.
Amber was not my only client in this period of course. I produced a few books for other packagers and for the games industry, and in 2010 I was approached to film a sizzle reel for a TV show based on one of my books. That led to other work for Morningstar Entertainment, who ended up hiring me as a weapons consultant and researcher. Thus far I've appeared in one of their shows, hopefully with more to come.
I also did a lot of work for the games industry. In recent years this has largely been for Cubicle Seven and Mongoose Publishing, with odd projects for other clients. The games industry does seem to produce a lot of candidates for the 'idiot list' (clients who are too much trouble to work with or who commit sins like failing to pay for work) so I do tend to be quite selective about who I write for. However, Mongoose and Cubicle Seven are professional outfits. Some days I'm tempted to list those who are not. I'll refrain for now....
Currently I'm still mainly writing packaged books for Amber, and happy doing it. However, I have a hankering to do more novels and there's always the possibility of further TV work as well. That said, I'm still a hack-for-hire so if someone has a job for me I'll consider it. I haven't quite descended to 'will write for food' but 'will write for scotch whisky' is always a possibility.
And then I went and decided I wanted to be a writer.
That was 1993. I remember chucking down some godawful fantasy drek and telling my wife I could do better in an afternoon. 'Go on then,' she said sympathetically. So I tried. Well, it took a year to complete the book, which (after a series of incarnations and revisions) eventually became the gunpowder-fantasy In Glory Die.
Next I began work on what became Behind the Throne, a pseudo-medieval fantasy with mysticism but no magic as such. That got hung up for a while to work on another piece, which eventually became A Brevet for the Guillotine. That one is a Napoleonic adventure, and it attracted interest from MacMillan books. The editor who liked it left just after I sent it in, so it came back (gah) so I presented it to the Maggie Noach Literary Agency.
The agency took the project on but for reasons that remain unclear I was dropped from the client list soon afterwards - and just after being assured that this would not happen. In a fit of annoyance I came up with the concept for The Art of Surviving in Supply Teaching. I pitched it and got a contract. This was September 1996.
In the interim I'd had a Traveller: The New Era novel accepted by GDW, who went out of business immediately afterwards (and at that point, I did begin to wonder if I was some sort of cosmic instrument of disaster). At around the same time as the teaching book was accepted I began outlining another Traveller novel. This one is still about halfway finished, having gone through several revisions and new versions. I might finish it someday, I guess...
By 1999 I was in a position to turn professional as a writer. Most of my work was for mainstream clients; I was doing a lot of technical writing at that time. By the early 2000s my main client was the SMi Group, for whom I was originally a technical journalist writing strategic reports. I spoke at some of their conventions; chairing one, and organised another in my role as their odd-job-man. As they wound down their publishing arm I edited the last 21 SMi reports to go to market, which kept me gainfully employed for about half a year.
Next, I made the mistake of working with a client that still owes me a great deal of money. They became virtually my only job for a while, so when they decided not to pay me for my work it... raised issues. Fortunately, in the meantime I had begun working with Amber Books. My first work-for-hire for Amber Books was in 2004, and within a couple of years they had become my main client and then pretty much my day job.I've done dozens of books for Amber, with more to come. Working with a book packager can be stressful, since the deadlines range from ridiculously tight to insane, but if you're good and quick it's quite fun. Amber Books are great to work with, not least because they pay on time. As a freelancer, I like that.
Amber was not my only client in this period of course. I produced a few books for other packagers and for the games industry, and in 2010 I was approached to film a sizzle reel for a TV show based on one of my books. That led to other work for Morningstar Entertainment, who ended up hiring me as a weapons consultant and researcher. Thus far I've appeared in one of their shows, hopefully with more to come.
I also did a lot of work for the games industry. In recent years this has largely been for Cubicle Seven and Mongoose Publishing, with odd projects for other clients. The games industry does seem to produce a lot of candidates for the 'idiot list' (clients who are too much trouble to work with or who commit sins like failing to pay for work) so I do tend to be quite selective about who I write for. However, Mongoose and Cubicle Seven are professional outfits. Some days I'm tempted to list those who are not. I'll refrain for now....
Currently I'm still mainly writing packaged books for Amber, and happy doing it. However, I have a hankering to do more novels and there's always the possibility of further TV work as well. That said, I'm still a hack-for-hire so if someone has a job for me I'll consider it. I haven't quite descended to 'will write for food' but 'will write for scotch whisky' is always a possibility.