It’s only fairly recently that I’ve come to think of myself mainly as a novelist. I served a long apprenticeship with other forms of writing – poetry, plays, short stories – all of which have left their mark on the language, characters and plotting of my novels.
I produced my plays with school and youth drama groups. They were great fun to do, but it never occurred to me to try to get them published. Four of them were full-length musicals, for which I wrote the music too.
I’ve written poems for as long as I can remember. The first one was called ‘The Witch’. I still write about witches, but they – and I – have changed over the years. I hit the first one over the head with a frying pan!
When I was a young man I wrote what I considered ‘serious’ poetry, some of which found its way into small poetry magazines. That dried up, but I kept on writing poems and songs for fun. I don’t do much at the moment, because I find it hard to switch into poetry mode when I’m working on novels – the two kinds of writing are so different.
Here are some of my published poems, with the anthologies they appeared in. If you would like to read any of them, just click on the title.
Greetings from Planet Christmas in While Shepherds Washed their Socks
Night School in Who Rules the School?
My Mates in Revenge of the Man-Eating Gerbils
My Brother in The Works & Sensational
Cinquains in The Works & Writer's handbook Stage 2
Man at the Door in Freaky Families
Island School Poetry Poster
Battle of Falkirk, 1298 in Blood & Roses - British History in Poetry
I started writing science fiction and fantasy stories for adults about fifteen years ago, but my first stories for young people were in football anthologies. Since then I’ve had a number of science fiction and fantasy stories published, mainly in the USA where there are more magazines and anthologies for children and young adults.
My latest short story is Dolphins, in My Kind of School (A & C Black Aug 2007). If you’d like to read some of the others, click on the titles below.
Teamwork in Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories
Jessica's Brother in More of Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories & Net 1
The Sound the Horn in Cicada Magazine
The Worsted Suit in Cicada Magazine
Woodenface (Usborne Aug 2007) is my first children’s novel, though I had an adult novel published a few years ago (Feather and Bone). I have two more planned to follow on from Woodenface, and some others in the pipeline – more news as things develop.
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