Age: 54 years Easy Rider young
Location: Hinckley, United Kingdom but still a Salford lad
Education: Bachelor of Laws LLB Hons DeMontfort University
The Writer
How long have you been writing?
I suddenly started to write poetry when I was 13 years old. Hid my notebooks crammed with the stuff under a floorboard in my bedroom. I still have them. Never told anyone I wrote poetry. Salford is a hard city.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I tend to be a maverick. For me, styles are malleable not set in stone. I like to shapeshift between realism and fantasy because both coexist in a flexible mind
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as a writer?
Being able to wear old worn-in boots, keep my beard, wear my hat and hope the poems speak to those who read them.
What is your greatest challenge as a writer?
To make time to read other writers with an open mind and learn from them how to improve my own work.
The Work
Tell us about your work in Crack the Spine.
Salted Slug – A poem about the victim of adultery, surviving the betrayal and moving on in life.
What inspired “Salted Slug?”
We all have ghosts. This poem, from my second book Inside Out, is a kind of exorcism enabling the victim to survive. Men don’t tend to talk about being the victim in adultery, so I tell the story from my own experience.
How long did it take you to complete this piece?
Not long. A few hours after midnight.
Tell us about a project you are currently working on.
My fifth book: Pomegranate Flesh
Can you share a bit from “Pomegranate Flesh?”
i’ve set so many fires
in the deepest desires
on this road
and am close
to what they hold-
the most
for human love
and equal revolution
without the bloody fist and glove
of brutal evolution.
see, how gold cartel caravans
and religions in corrupt polarity
have usurped the pagan
shrines of all humanity-
making us serfs again
in unframed Lothlorien,
in chains that were strings,
ciliced by mortifications mesh,
while our mind and limbs
long for love’s pomegranate flesh.
Where can we find this book?
Available to purchase on Lulu and Amazon.
The Methods
How often do you write?
I write most days and nights at my desk in my study library and sometimes in bed.
What time of day or night makes you most productive as a writer?
I like the quiet-time of night with the barn owls and nightingale softening the silence.
What are your thoughts on writing at a computer vs. writing longhand?
I write everything in longhand, starting with a blank piece of A-4 plain paper and edit on the page. Primitive like life, but I am slowly evolving to writing at a computer screen.
What is your usual starting point for a piece?
Sights, sounds, smells, memories, places, words in overheard conversations, life events, art, music, history, all trigger poems. Some are in real time, others sleep for days, months, years.
What is your best piece of advice on how to stay sane as a writer?
A pot of strong black coffee and a slow smoke with Miles Davis playing in the shadows.
The Madness
What is your favorite book?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
If you could have dinner with one fictional character, who would it be and why?
Inspector John Rebus from Ian Rankin’s novels. We like the same music and could compare ghosts.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
Johnny Depp
What’s in that cup on your desk?
Hot black coffee with a nip of rum.
What is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
My Muse.
Rain or Sunshine?
Sunshine after Rain
Beach or Mountains?
Mountains and forests.
The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
The Beatles-Poets
Additional Reading on Strider