My first foray into writing in the science fiction the genre was not well received by my English teacher who rejected it with the comment 'Further essays of this type will be returned unmarked!' in red pen, of course.

 

As I grew older, I progressed from reading James Blish and Andre Norton to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke.

Later still, I sidetracked into fantasy with Terry Brooks and David Gemmell, finding time to slip in a bit of Ben Bova and Michael Moorcock.

Clive Barker and James Herbert filled my appetite for horror, along with Stephen King. 

More recently, I've enjoyed the works of Charlaine Harris, the late lamented Terry Pratchett and the equally sadly missed Douglas Adams,

 

Finally, I ploughed my way through the entire Song of Ice and Fire series by James R R Martin.

 

Most recently, I've read 'Los Caminantes', a Zombie tale in Spanish by the author Carlos Sisi and 'Sleep, Think, Die' by Indie author S. P. Oldham.

 

When not reading or writing, I watch far too much sci-fi and fantasy on TV, listen to all types of music from Classic Rock to Reggaeton and practise my Spanish via the Internet with my profesora in Mexico.

 

Covid restrictions permitting, I like to get out on my Kawasaki Vulcan S 650 and visit all the biker cafes within 50-60 miles, or make more local trips on my 1964 BSA 650

 

I now live in South Yorkshire, with my wife and two dogs..

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How the Wolf was born

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I started writing Agent Wolf back in 2008, while on holiday.

As often happens, it was shelved on my return, and Life got in the way.

In late February of 2018, a friend asked me to beta-read his manuscript.

I didn't even know he'd been writing a book. I duly agreed.

Shortly afterwards, his book 'Cure' was published by Author House and is available on Amazon .

 

That was the spur I needed to dust off the old files on my hard drive and breathe fresh life into Agent Wolf.

My first task was to completely rewrite the few chapters I already had, changing the protagonist's profession and the situation in which he first meets the Wolf.

 

For the purpose of the Werewolf's back-story, I also moved the action 15 years into the future, to line events up more accurately in the past. This gave me the opportunity for a little speculation on the future of automation, transport and medicine.

 

The character I had originally envisioned as the Villain took on a more ambivalent role and the name of the new Villain actually came to me at 2.30 one morning, when I woke up suddenly, also with a fairly clear idea of his plan and motivation.

 

Unlike some authors, I tend to write by the 'seat of the pants' and the story revealed itself as I was writing.

The upshot was that the first draft was very thin, with a skeletal plot and poorly developed characters.

So, where most authors tend to prune their first draft to get their final version, I had to put flesh on the bones, bring the cartoon characters to life and work on making the plot more interesting.

 

In total, I'd guess editing and rewriting took up about three times as long as the initial draft.

 

I also had to learn the ins and outs of Kindle publishing, but did this while my pre-release copies were out as ebooks with my beta-readers, who did a fantastic job.

 

So, that's how Agent Wolf came to be. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

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Edit:

Of course 'Hedoen: A Wolf's Tale' followed the next year, and I'm now working on a third book with a completely new set of characters.

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