You can read about what I was doing while writing each of the novels in
Behind the Books
in the Sholan Universe section.
8 June 2009
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This is the place to come if you want to learn about some of my hobbies and interests.
By profession, I trained as a teacher so I'm
interested in everything. Learning is an on-going experience for me. My writing
has taken me down many an interesting thoroughfare and alley of research. My
main interests are in paleontology, ancient civilizations, particularly the
Minoans and Ancient Egyptians, and the history of the Old testament times, which
I studied at college.At college, when we did a survey on our leisure time, I was accused of cheating. The tutor concluded I was one of the few lucky, or unlucky ones, depending on your view point, for whom my work was leisure! :)
I used to read a minimum of 8 books a week plus do my day job. Now I read when I can, but it's so easy now to be influenced while I'm writing that I don't read nearly as much as before. It's mostly SF I read. Genetics, the workings of the human mind, how memories are stored and accessed, how religions evolve to fulfill the needs of the community to which they belong, and of course, the care, developmental stages and behaviour of Cats, both large and small are just some of the on-going interests I study in writing my current series for DAW Books.
I thought you might like to see
where I sit when I am writing.
I have a son, Kai, who is 24 and
married. (he was 15 when this photo was taken) They do grow up so fast!
I also have two cute cats, and dog. She's cute too, as you can see from
the photo. She's mainly a Bearded Collie but with lots of Irish Wolfhound,
Deerhound and some German Shepherd in her.
More About me
TV watching
ration the TV I watch but always try to catch new series to keep abreast
of what's happening in the genre. PRIMEVAL is a great favorite of mine,
and an amazing UK series made for BBC America. We are well into Series
3 now.
TERMINATOR: The Sarah Conner Chronicles - I was unsure about the new dark haired Sarah, but she is doing a grand job. I really love this series.
STARGATE: Still trying to get caught up on missed episodes. Willl be interesting to see what the new one is like come the Fall.
SANCTUARY: Watched it originally because of the Sam Carter actress in it - very interesting and intriguing, but I wonder where it is going. I prefer a series to have a goal or aim within it.
Then there are the other series I enjoy. BONES - love it. :) And NCIS, HOUSE.
I watch these on my PC as I don't have them on TV here, and doing it that way lets me set my own viewing schedule to suit what I am doing.
Computer Games
Yes, I still play them - it helps put me in the mood for my writing, or
gives me experiences I cannot get in real life for my writing. I remember
being asked by the Inland Revenue folk how I could justify this and replying
that I could play the THIEF games to find out what it is like to sneak
about as a thief, but I could not get dressed in a striped jersey, done
an eye mask and take a bag with SWAG written on it and head out onto the
streets to find out for myself what being a thief was like. I mean, let's
get real here. :)
Currently I have FEAR which is set in an Alien vessel. I have also played
some DEAD SPACE. Man, that is wickedly scary... Also playing through QUAKE
4 set on Mars with similar animated and changed corpses.
BIO SHOCK is another, but being a bit of a chicken at gruesome bits, I
haven't played it in a bit as I have to head through the hospital section
and am told that is nasty. Nasty? The whole game is pretty gruesome and
nasty, and again, scarey!
On the other side I play Everquest 2, which is not nasty and scary. A
classic Sword & Sorcery type of MMORPG which I play with old gaming
friends from Australia. I love how the country barriers for these games
don't exist.
Apart from that, I soak up the sun when I can, and go on beach BBQs with
my good friend Katie and her husband Kim and his kids, and my son and
his wife. We got chased out of the sea the other weekend by the Lifeguard
saying there was a report of yellow tail sharks offshore. Not big, but
could take a nasty chunk out of your calf. Ugh. We looked for sand dollars
and found a rare black one.
You will find links to my own group and our UK pages on my Links page. Our UK page has a fantastic set of Living History photos up and info on the locations of all the UK local groups. Currently the society has 800 plus members now.
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