About me

“I’m a writer and poet and a longterm sufferer of depressive illness. I try to keep smiling but sometimes I fail.

I love the natural world, and am a great fan of the vagaries of the English weather.”

That was written when I started this blog in February 09. I really didn’t know what I was getting into and I didn’t know what to write about myself. To be honest, I didn’t think anyone would really be interested. Now I know differently.

First, the blog title. It came to me before I even thought of starting a blog. I’ve enjoyed the whole concept of the Zen koan, a short question that usually has no answer but is intended to provoke more questions and more thinking. Think of the classic one: What is the sound of one hand clapping? Most of my posts are written  with this aim in mind; I just lack the compactness of a koan. I try to look at the world from another angle. I like(like: not sure I like it but I am inwardly compelled to do it) to ask questions, sometimes awkward ones. There is no final answer about anything. That’s the joy and the sorrow of it.

I am a professional writer: that is to say, I earn money(and a few other benefits) by doing so. Not my living, yet, I have two day jobs for that. I write about life, I write about what is important to me. I write fiction and poetry and I ought to warn you that some of what is billed as fiction is true and what is billed as….non-fiction may actually be something else entirely.

Apart from one tongue in cheek article,  I don’t write about writing. Or the publishing struggle. There is no short cut or easy way for either. I write because I enjoy it and because it frees something in me. I had my first novel published this year: you can see more details of this either by reading the page Strangers and Pilgrims, or clicking the links therein.

I’m still a depressive and I still love the English weather. I’d just like a little less extreme variations in either.