Biography

I live in Colchester, England, where I write urban fantasy featuring characters based on the sort of people you might meet in the world of modern paganism. If you recognise any of the characters it’s probably because we’ve both met the same people. However, you can be reassured that I’m not writing about you, honest!

My stories include elements of modern pagan life and the magick people practice. Think in terms of divination systems like tarot or astrology, things like talismans and ritual or ceremony. However, characters in my stories don’t cast spells, as in some popular magical fiction, and there are certainly no sparks coming from their wands. Instead, more realistically (if that’s not a contradiction in terms), my characters usually have to wait to see the outcome of their magick, and the results are often not exactly as they’d planned.

I’ve recently published a novella Sundae Driver, free as an e-book to anyone who would like to sample my fiction. Sign up to my newsletter to get a free copy. Just click this link to get your free copy delivered to your email within seconds and you’ll be signed up automatically.

Sundae Driver: A story of Dan and Stan, with Zelda and the Welder is set in Blackpool a few years before the events that take place in my novel, The Hidden Masters and the Unspeakable Evil. It’s not exactly a prequel as the Four Hidden Masters don’t appear, but one or two of the minor characters do.

Modern Paganism

I have a particular interest in the way people are creating their own philosophies from the bottom up. (I don’t like to call it religion as I’m allergic to the term, and modern paganism lacks many of the features of religions.) This is something I explored in my travelogue In SatNav We Trust – A search for meaning through the Historic Counties of England, a journey through ideas or science and belief, all the while searching for meaning and a bed for the night. Or was that the other way around?

Being something of a closet rationalist I try to bring a rigour to the field, instead of merely accepting any old idea. For example, I once heard someone say in all seriousness, ‘everything has an opposite.’ No it doesn’t. What’s the opposite of a football? So, not everything philosophical sounding is valid.

However, despite my taste for rationalism, I feel that modern life often lacks meaning. Stealing some of the dressing from religion, while understanding how these perspectives work, might just give us value and understanding of ourselves, each other and our place in the universe. The important thing to remember is to always keep your bullshit detectors running.