Today I’m delighted to be handing over to Simon Farrant, an author who is just starting out on his journey. To avoid Simon hanging about and getting any last minute nerves I’m just going to hand straight over to him and let him introduce himself to you all.
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| Photo courtesy of Simon Farrant |
It is true, what they say; you never know where life is going to take you.
I’m lucky enough to have had a diverse experience of life thus far.
Back in 1975, I was born in Doncaster. I’m proud of my Yorkshire roots of course.
Over the following few decades, I lived in various places. I went to university in Derby and gained a HND and a BA (Hons). Since then, I lived, studied and worked in a few more places before finding the love of my life.
We moved in together, got married and had three kids. What an adventure; it started fifteen years ago. Since then, I am proud to have served as a Special Constable. I wanted to join up full time, but life had another plan. At the time, I was working for a major national supermarket as a HGV (large truck) driver, which I did for over a decade. I became ill, I think it was during 2011 with swine flu, but the illness never went away. Now I am disabled with various chronic illnesses; which resulted in my losing my job about four years ago.
I did wonder where life would take me next.
Mark Nye, a superb writer and a friend, asked for submissions for an anthology. I wrote a short story called Famously Ordinary. To my delight, Mark told me it was a good story. By then, I had caught the writing bug!
The anthology was never actually published, so I made it into a novella when I had some more writing experience. This is, I feel, a much better story.
I have a couple of novella’s available to buy, and if you like horror then pick up Anathema. That’s a short story collection from myself and Mark.
Later this year I shall be releasing my first novel, Too Early for Death, which has been very well received by Beta readers. So much so, that I am halfway through writing the sequel.
I love writing as much as I can, and I look forward to hearing from you all.
Thanks a million for taking the time to read this bio, I am delighted that you have taken the interest.
Simon
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Plotter, pantser or somewhere in-between
I love the question; ‘Are you a plotter or a pantser?’
I am certainly somewhere in between. Each story that I have written has been different. In the beginning, I was a pure pantser and just wrote where the words and characters took me. This was wonderful, and I hope that this happens again. I had a rough idea as to what was going to occur, but the story took it’s own path there. This really took place with the novella Famously Ordinary; trust me, I was really quite shocked at what the main character, James Dean, did when he carried out the murders.
This changed slightly with a novel I have written, and am currently revising and polishing. It’s called Too Early For Death at the moment. I began with a kernel of an idea, which was about how one decision can change your life and have devastating consequences for a person and their family. As I went along it became an eternal love story, and that love never dies despite that decision. A while into writing the story, I decided on the ending. This is when the story became hybrid pants/plot. I knew the destination and where I had began… but no sat nav!
When this book is published, the follow up book shall be released a month later. I am currently writing this. By necessity, as it is a follow up, there had to more of a plan than the first book. Of course, the beginning was the previous ending. While thinking about the book, I found a series of points that I wanted the story to touch. So, again we have a hybrid, but I can’t totally lose my pants and there is an elasticity to the plot. A new character has slammed into the book, whilst I was writing a chapter (what a rascal!) who has demanded their own chapter.
So, I guess the answer is that I have elasticated pants!
I was lucky enough to find a wonderful tool called storyshop.io that has very much helped with the plot/story writing process. I would certainly recommend that any writer, new or experienced, check it out.
Soon, I shall be writing a short story for a follow up book that Mark Nye has created. It is called Super Sick 2, I had a story in Super Sick. For this story, I am aiming to be a pure pantser and enjoy the freedom that brings.
Thank you for reading, I hope that you have enjoyed it!
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Thank you so much for stopping by today Simon. It's been great getting to know you and finding out more about you and your work and I'm sure the readers have enjoyed it as much as I have. I'm looking forward to reading Famously Ordinary and experiencing your writing for myself.
You can connect with Simon using the links below, I know he'd love to hear from you so why not give his page a like or follow him on Twitter. Go on, share the love and make a new authors day!
Well done mate, proud of you :)
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