Writing

History

I started writing after I'd returned having completed a two-year contract working as a biochemical engineer in Ireland to London. Most days I'd travel to the British Library to do some market report writing work and look for a new job. While having some spare brain capacity, I was drawn to writing. Celtx offered some free software which I used to enter their own competition. They'd take submitted plays and turn them into a live performance using a relay-style creative process over 24 hours.

Firewall, based on the idea of heaven being similar to a central server, was performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival in 2007 and I got the bug to keep writing. This continued with plays, many of which were performed in Bristol and across the UK. They've been collected together in a book called Pieces: Plays 1, find more about it here.

From playwriting it was a small leap towards screenwriting. I began writing short film scripts and then worked on two feature-length scripts with the actor Matt Milne. The sci-fi adventure Orbital was finished and I continue to work on The Odds Couple under the mentorship of Robin Mukherjee. I've also written a thirty-minute comedy drama (Outdoorsman). The screenplay for Zetz was twice shortlisted for the Pears Film Fund. I also started making films, learning the basics through the welcoming Bristol Film and Video Society. Many of my films are on their site but are also described on the Filmmaking page.

In-between, I've also managed to write some comic book stories. I provided a short story for a student to use for his degree work about a pet shop that was really a trap to capture humans. Reg: The Self-Made Man is an reinterpretation of Frankenstein's Monster. Set in London and Cambridge it's a story of a man, made in a laboratory, seeking answers. An 8-page taster was made with Inks by Tony Holdsworth (inks) and Ellie Wright (colours).

I've also written some books. The Carpenter and The Goat Herder is a novella, which I also illustrated, and was published in 2023.  The Proving is a completed detective novel set in Portland Dorset. Sea Glass is a work in progress.

Future

An illustrated poetry collection is due in 2024. I've also got a follow up to Want Do Get that focuses more on multi-character stories.