Hi, I’m Steve; 46 years old; GSOH; looking for: an agent or publisher…

I know, I know, it reads a little like a poor lonely hearts advert but, in essence, it’s true. That is me. I am that age. I do have a good sense of humour. But most importantly I am looking for an agent and/or publisher for my recently completed debut novel, Exodus.

I started writing a novel some twenty five years ago. I have always loved the idea of writing for a living and the two actual career paths I have followed since leaving school at sixteen have involved a considerable degree of writing. Some of the documents I have created over the years are still used as templates to this day. However, in my own private writing I could never get much farther than the first page! For some strange reason I would get to a certain point and, no matter how hard I tried, I could get no farther. For many years, on and off, I would go back and start again with the same result every time. Until…

Back in 2005 one of my dearest friends, also interested in writing a novel, recommended a book to me. That book was entitled “No plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty and was a guide to writing for a competition, the National Novel Writing Month. This competition encouraged prospective authors to attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days! Now that was not a practical proposition for me at that stage but the book proved invaluable to me with many good ideas to help and guide the aspiring author. Suddenly, half way through the book, I had a moment of epiphany as I realised where I had been going wrong. I had spent all those years attempting to start my novel in the wrong place! It would take too long to explain why I had made such a basic mistake here, suffice to say that the Muse suddenly descended upon me and the beast was unleashed (sorry about the mixed metaphors!).

Since that fateful day writing has become my obsession. I will tuck myself away in the corner of my favourite coffee shop almost every day for several hours on end. Writing. Writing. Writing. I write exclusively by hand, my typing being far too slow to use a computer or laptop, and I use my trusty old fountain pen which has almost become an extension of my own hand. I am often amazed at the way my book developed and I’m sure my pen had as much to do with that as I did!

Anyway, the upshot of all this writing is my debut novel, Exodus, a crime thriller centred around Detective Inspector Rhys Davies and his Murder Squad team as they race to solve a series of bizarre ritualistic murders.

Currently the book is 123,000 words in length and is the first of a series of “Rhys Davies” novels. You can read a brief cover note outlining the premis of the book by clicking on the Synopsis button at the top of this page. Or you can click on the Chapter 1 button and read the first chapter in its entirety. I would be delighted to hear your thoughts through the review page where I will include as many of the comments I receive as possible.

I am now over half-way through the first draft of the second “Rhys Davies” novel and I have at least another three novels planned in the same series. I also have two historical novels mapped out and, bizarrely enough, I am writing a Western style novel, in collaboration with my aforementioned close friend. One day I hope to find the time to write the children’s stories I started to create when my children were babies some seventeen years ago! I currently have one short story entered into competitions, The Driver, which is entered in The Writing Magazine Crime Short Story Competition. The results from that competition are due to be announced shortly. One of my other short stories, At World’s End, which was entered in the short story section of the Yeovil Literary Prize 2009, came 19th out of over 350 entries and was commended by the judging panel. I am also currently working on yet another short story, this time in the science fiction genre, which is provisionally entitled Mars Probe 13. Both entries are something of a literary departure for me as they are both written in the first person. Indeed, all the short stories I have written so far have been written in the first person. Bad Moon, my first short story competition entry was also new in that it is my first foray into horror writing. You can read an extract of Bad Moon by clicking on the Short Story tab at the top of this page. Finally I am also working on a short story anthology (nothing to do with the competition short stories mentioned above), the working title of which is Heroes.

Thank you for visiting my website, I hope you like the extract from the book and I look forward to hearing from you very soon.