About

I’m a writer. This is not a matter of choice, or inclination, or a statement of my profession. It’s an unavoidable facet of my person: I exist through the vehicle of that activity. Writing is always a matter of life and death for me.

I came to this realisation after many years convinced I was a musician. For this reason I spent a lot of time writing about music, mainly in the form of album reviews. However, I eventually became unhappy with the realities of that particular form of intertextual play, and the writing that largely fills this site now comprises autobiographically inflected critical essays about my various cultural encounters. I use a lot of difficult language and obscure theoretical conceits, because I don’t know any other way to convey the complex truth of those encounters… and also because that makes for the kind of writing I like to read.

These essays, and the reviews of recorded music that once filled this site, are a secondary occupation for me, as a writer. I was struck by an epiphany, at around the age of 40, after many years reading and thinking about fantasy literature, and specifically about the ways its worlds are designed. I am, I realised, uniquely disposed to dedicate my creative efforts to the construction of a fantasy world, and to writing stories set there. Although I have drafted a great deal of narrative, the majority of the work I have done towards this has been in world design, in the construction of languages, the drawing of maps, the writing of histories, and so on. Eventually these labours will reach the stage at which I’m able to focus on the production of publishable stories, but I’m determined not to rush the process. My focus is primarily on world-building, and it will be that which drives my stories, not vice versa. Any relevant news will be shared on this site, but don’t hold your breath…