I get asked this question a lot. Why did I choose writing as a career? I usually enjoy answering it, because the answer was never part of a plan. It happened slowly, and mostly by accident.
I was not always a writer. I never expected to become one. When someone once asked me what job I would choose if I could do anything, the word writing came out before I had time to think. That surprised me. I had never taken the idea seriously. I did not think I would be any good at it. I definitely did not think anyone would want to read what I wrote.
Most of my working life was hands on and physical. I started in theatre at sixteen. Sweeping stages. Making tea. Learning how things worked by watching people who had been there longer than me. Being one of the youngest backstage crew members came with plenty of banter, and not all of it gentle. I stuck with it anyway. I found I had a knack for the work. Over fifteen years I worked my way through the ranks, and that time still matters to me more than I probably admit.
I met my wife in 2007. We settled in Lincoln. We had two children. Life became fuller, and heavier. Theatre work became harder to manage. The hours were long. I was often away. I was exhausted, though I did not fully understand why at the time. Eventually I stepped away and moved into the building trade.
That shift was not natural for me. Early mornings never suited me. The learning curve was steep. Still, I adapted. I found my feet. Somewhere in that period, I realised I was missing something creative. I started writing small pieces. Nothing serious. Nothing close to a book. Just words, here and there.
I trained as a tiler and in 2017 I started my own business. Starting again from scratch was hard, but the work came in quickly. Working alone gave me a lot of time to think. One line kept repeating in my head. The raindrops fell against the windowpane. One day I wrote it down. Then a paragraph followed. I did not know it at the time, but that moment became the seed of Firestone.
At this point, writing still did not feel like a career. It felt like something I did to keep part of myself active.
Around then, things began to fall apart in quieter ways. My energy dropped. My concentration slipped. Every day felt heavier than the last. I kept working and hoped it would pass. It did not. I reached a point where I could not ignore it any longer. The doctors called it a prolonged depressive episode. Other people might call it a breakdown.
If there is one thing I would say to anyone close to that edge, it is this. Ask for help. Talk to someone. Do not keep pushing and hope it fixes itself. I tried that. It made everything worse.
I was lucky. My wife and friends supported me through that period. I owe them more than I can properly explain. When I began to recover, tiling no longer felt possible in the same way. During a counselling session, I was asked the same question again. If you were not doing this, what would you do?
By then, the writing had picked up. I did not know how books were made. I did not understand editing, publishing, or promotion. I was still working. But whenever I had spare time, I wrote. It became a way to step somewhere else for a while. Sometimes I would finish a session and barely remember what I had written. I just knew I needed to go back.
If you are curious what that world eventually became, the World of Tellus series grew out of those early sessions at the keyboard.
INTERNAL LINK: link “World of Tellus series” to your main series or books page.
In late 2019, I received another diagnosis. ME. The exhaustion I had felt for years suddenly made sense. Other symptoms clicked into place. On medical advice, I had to stop tiling completely.
If you are unfamiliar with ME, the NHS overview explains how it affects energy, concentration, and daily life here.
I needed something to do. Something that still felt possible. Writing was the one thing that did not seem to drain me in the same way, though I still do not fully understand why. So I wrote. That went well until March 2020, when everything stopped. Schools closed. The world changed pace. Writing became impossible for a while. With two children at home, the book had to wait.
Late in 2020, I returned to it properly. In May 2021, I released Firestone. That still feels strange to write. People wanted to read it. I did not expect that. I certainly did not expect to release Orbis within the same year.
If you are new to the books and want a clear place to begin, the reading order explains how the series unfolds.
I enjoy being an author. Some days are hard. There are mornings when forming sentences feels out of reach. Some parts of the work are tedious. That is true of most jobs. I am currently halfway through the first draft of Tempus. I do not know exactly what the coming months will look like. I do know that I want to keep going, and see where this leads.
