How it started

I’ve loved writing from the start. Creating things was fun. I think my love of writing came from my love of reading.  This isn’t terribly insightful, I’ve read of many writers who say their desire to write came from their passion for books and reading. My parents read to me when I was small and always bought me books and encouraged storytelling. At school I was rubbish at Maths, Physics and Accounting but relished English, History and Geography – go figure!

When I was about 15 years of age a friend gave me The Hobbit to read and after that everything changed. I moved on to The Lord of the Rings, Dune and then all manner of sci fi and fantasy. A switch had been turned on. I started inventing my own stories, characters and worlds. I hand wrote four exercise books of a fantasy story, full of characters and events I loved. I gave it to my teacher to review – she liked it but told me time was better spent on my studies.

Years passed without giving writing much focus. It was much later in life, married with kids that I picked up the pen again. Local writing groups and creative writing courses became a ‘thing’ and I started to produce material. Time of course was the killer. Having twins and running my own business got in the way of writing. My wife Janine was massively supportive over the ten years it took to write The Minerva Agenda – yes ten years, probably half of that was actually writing the damn thing.

I think the writing started as I have this innate need to be creative and write stuff down. It’s therapeutic, I find it stimulating and relaxing. In my head the characters, their thoughts and feelings, their attitudes and views on life are real. Some are based on real people and events but then the creativity kicks in and they become a different ‘real’ person. They become friends – it’s gutting when I kill one!

I sometimes think back to what I wrote at school and those exercise books. As well as the teacher, I gave them to some classmates to read. When they’d finished, they kept hassling me to write more…. maybe I should have listened to them!

P.D.Mc Shane Author