Memuat
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author
Andrew Kelly
My name's Andrew Kelly - and I refuse to write my bio in the third person, alright?
First things first: What do I do to pay the mortgage and put food in my kiddies' mouths? Well, I...lihat lebih banyakMy name's Andrew Kelly - and I refuse to write my bio in the third person, alright?
First things first: What do I do to pay the mortgage and put food in my kiddies' mouths? Well, I've spent much of my long career in IT helping corporates comply with their legislative, regulatory and information security requirements. It's what I do - and I'm sorry to disappoint - but more often than not I have 'Consultant' somewhere in my title.
Now that we've got that out of the way ... what about my writing? Not so unusually in an author, I was first - and remain - this avid reader of all types of fiction: thrillers, SF, adventure, pulp, fantasy, humour, whatever. The only difference between when I was in short trousers and now is - I do my reading these days on a Kindle.
Then, over a decade ago now, while working away from home (then Windsor in the UK), I reckoned it was about time I started to write. My first effort took me an absolute age, and was this dark, deep-and-meaningful military thriller set in '90's civil-war torn Tajikistan. And okay: It was as dull, dank and tedious as it sounds, yeah? By year two I'd scribed around 75,000 words ... and my story was so going nowhere. Very slowly.
Then a friend said: "Y'know, you've got a great sense of humour? Why not write something ... humourous? Oh, and it's your round, dude."
So I did.
And six months later I'd finished 'My Cup Runneth'. This UK- and European-based humourous action-thriller based around a search for a long lost artifact. I, and of course, reckoned it was the 'Next Big Thing' but - surprise! surprise! - no publisher wanted to know. This was well before the days of self-publishing on the InterWeb, alright?
Later, another friend said: "Y'know, you've got a great sense of humour - and as you're back in New Zealand now? Why not write something humourous set here? Oh, and mine's a Chardonnay, dude."
With that I sat down and totally rewrote 'My Cup Runneth' as 'Like A Diamond'. Now this New Zealand-based humourous action-thriller ... based around a search for a long lost artifact. And this one was actually good enough to (nearly) get conventionally published by a local company. Who later pulled out of negotiations - with no explanation - after months of 'too-ing and fro-ing'. 'Frustrating' doesn't begin to describe it!
With that, 'Like A Diamond' was relegated to the far corner of my Dell's C drive, where it gathered virtual dust for three years.
Then, in 2011, I decided I'd mourned long enough, and that enough was enough here, so I began writing again. Three months later, 'Light-Fingered Lucy' was completed. Now I did try approaching conventional agents and publishers, but there was a recession on and no one, no way, wanted to have anything to do with a 'non-entity' like me.
Couldn't blame them but ... discouraging!
Then I e-read that eBooks were so the future. And decided who was I to stand in the way of progress, yeah? So I got down and uploaded 'Light-Fingered Lucy' onto Smashwords. And of course!
Happy once more, this spurred me on to un-relegate 'Like A Diamond'. Which, after a dusting off, I completely updated and rewrote. And you'll also find it up on Smashwords.
Now my only (delicious) dilemma is: Which sequel to write first? Or ... should I try my hand at something new?lihat lebih sedikit