About

There are more opportunities than ever for an author to self-publish. It is inexpensive and the opportunity to reach and connect with your readers has never been greater with the advent of social media if you are prepared to put yourself out there! It is an exciting and intrinsically more rewarding path, and the beauty of e-books is that they never go out of print. My strongest advice for any indie author however is make sure your book is properly edited and professionally formatted. My aim was for my book to look as professional and impressive as a book produced by any established publisher, and I am glad to say I have achieved that.

Exploitation is an intense, touching, and compelling look at the international sex slave trade. It is told through the story of a young Bulgarian woman, Marisa, who comes to Canada looking for work but is forced into sex slavery until her father and a Canadian private investigator can help her. I focused on creating realistic and empathetic characters with complicated backstories and conflicting desires. Those conflicts lead to corruption, deceit, violence, and a searing look at modern slavery in Canada, which whether we choose to accept it or not, is right here on our doorstep. It was designed to entertain and to provide thrilling, edge of the seat action and entertainment, but it is also educational, displaying a biting indictment of the hopeless inadequacy of the authorities to deal with this trade in misery. The taut pacing in the story will have you turning the page until the very end, yet I hope that you will also walk away informed and motivated to do whatever you can to stop this terrible stain on civilized society.

The germ of The Dictator of Britain series came about when I looked at the economic gloom and social unrest in 21st century Britain and it led me to question where the country is headed - it was not a happy path and so many people seemed to complain about the influx of immigrants and how they failed to integrate. This feeling was perpetuated by the right-wing media and there has been a marked rise in right wing sentiment and fascist groups. I started the book before Brexit so to some extent I have been overtaken by events, although the first thing Lawrence pelham does on coming to power is to take Britain out of Europe. I thought what if the current polarised society was taken to extremes? What right does the UK have to remain a democracy? What if someone came in promising reform and a return to the Great Britain of old? I projected 10 years into the future to creates a dystopian but plausible scenario of a country on the brink, which rapidly falls into a right-wing dictatorship. That ten years is almost up from when I put pen to paper and some of the predictions in the book have become eerily and depressingly prescient, particularly when you look at the corruption and idiocy of the current Conservative government.

I love writing, period. I love the intellectual process of creating interesting scenarios, interwoven plots, and strong characters that people can identify with. My favorite part is writing action scenes so you will find a lot of action in my books. In fact, many people have particularly mentioned that Exploitation would translate perfectly to the big screen. Seeing my book on screen would be a huge buzz I have to admit. The other thing I love about writing is the research - my books rely heavily on real situations, and they are deeply researched - I develop the story by putting a creative spin but always aim to make my books as realistic and plausible as possible.

My fans are everything. An author lives or dies by his audience! The biggest buzz for me as a writer is when people tell me how much they have enjoyed reading the book. That to me makes all the investment in time and intellectual effort worth it to create something unique that has inspired or moved people. I love connecting with my fans where the opportunity presents itself and always welcome them to contact me. Without them there is no me the author!

I am plotting an eco-thriller based on the devastation of our forests and water table, and how corporate greed and corruption is destroying the environment, yet nature is remarkably resilient and just like good honest people, has a way of fighting back. I promise that when it comes out it will have you on the edge of your seat!

I am not a person that can write for long periods at a time and my demanding work and family life makes time at a premium. However, the plots and characters are constantly in my mind so when I get time (often on the commute home!) I will take the opportunity to write a few paragraphs and it's amazing how it adds up! I view my novels as a film running inside my head and as I observe that film, I write what I see. The visual aspect of writing helps me to keep it realistic and exciting.

I see the book cover as the single most important marketing tool to attract a reader. If they like the cover, they may pick it up to look further. Exploitation is a portrayal of the sheer terror that you might feel if you were the girl on the cover. Enslaved to gun-wielding captors, what are your options? Given the visceral nature of the subject, I wanted to capture the abject desperation and horror that a victim of trafficking and exploitation might feel in such a hopeless situation. Despite the subject, this is not a salacious read, but gets inside the heads of the characters and what they may be thinking. I have explored the subject with compassion and empathy. Consider how you would be feeling if you were in Marisa’s situation? We know it happens, but we cannot just turn away. I took a different approach with The Dictator of Britain series. In each cover I took an almost surreal shot of the London Houses of Parliament. The heavy grey clouds signify the storms ahead for the country, and those storms surely come in abundance!

I love to read many authors. One of my favourites is Richard North Patterson. His plots and characters are superb, and his books are clearly extensive in their research. That is a style that I love to emulate.