My Background
It all started with a love of stories…
I’ve always loved stories and storytelling. I’ve been reading since I was very young, and also love movies, TV shows, and video games. I’ve consumed stories in all forms for as long as I can remember. Essentially, anything which can weave an engaging tale has me hooked.
As I imagine most readers do, I always dreamed of writing a novel myself. However, I never felt capable of this epic feat. I’d find myself pulled into amazing worlds and engaging tales and never believed I could be capable of producing such captivating narratives.
While a large amount of this belief is down to a lack of confidence in my abilities, a huge chunk is due to being neurodiverse. I am diagnosed autistic and would likely also get an ADHD diagnosis as well if I chose to spend years in another system waiting for answers.
As part of this I often describe myself as having squirrel brain. I start doing something then get easily, completely, and totally distracted by a new thing. Think of the scene in Up when Dug the dog is chatting away then suddenly gets utterly focused on a squirrel mid sentence and it pulls his entire focus onto a new thing. Hence, squirrel brain.
Note: The term squirrel brain was cemented by this scene in Up, but can be originally traced back to Suzy Izzard’s Dress To Kill sketch about squirrels wondering if they left the gas on before realising they didn’t, because they are a squirrel. I am eternally checking if I locked a door, left the gas on, or took my medication.
I am known for jumping from one project to another, and even one task to another. I cannot think of the last time I had a day when I’ve only done one thing. Often even simple tasks like going to get a drink get diverted as I spot other things that need doing, such as loading the dishwasher, and I end up doing three things I didn’t intend to and not actually remembering to get the drink I went for. Focusing on writing one thing for long enough to produce a novel felt impossible.
So I wrote other things: website copy, advertisements, news, features, technical descriptions, top ten lists, short stories. You name it, I’ve probably written it. I even did a stint as a ghostwriter. At this point, pretty much the only thing I’ve never written is a novel.
And then came a podcast…
I love a good comedy podcast and I’ve listened to everything on the From Superheroes network for a number of years now.
Talk From Superheroes combines humour and analysis of superhero, and at this point vaguely related, movies which really appeals to my nerdy film student brain.
I Hate it But I Love It is hosted by two women after my own heart who love talking about the good and bad parts of movies. My age is close enough to theirs that many of these I also watched a kid and now go back to and find there’s a little hatred mixed in with that love these days.
The Villain Was Right argues for all good movie villains, from gangsters and murderers to the shark in Jaws and the meteor in Armageddon. They have the best arguments and I am also a huge fan of wishing for the “third option” in romantic comedies.
These were the three podcasts I listened to until The Fandom Show burst into the line up in January 2022, offering an in depth exploration of a huge range of fandoms, from movies and music, to fanfiction, fonts, and everything in between.
However, it was the most recent (and recently award winning) podcast Comedians in Dungeons Getting Dragons, which began in December 2023, that initially sparked an idea which I am now committed to developing into a novel.
From here came an idea which never left…
Comedians in Dungeons Getting Dragons describes itself as the ADHDest podcast ever, and I suspect that’s why I’m so drawn to it. If you want a D&D live play with attention being paid to things like rules, then don’t listen to this podcast. However, if you value comedy and chaos, alongside a story that is in no way predictable, then you’ve come to the right place.
As I got increasingly hooked on the podcast, with its cast of chaotic characters and players who are prone to getting bored of their own ideas and forgetting everything they’ve just done, it made me think about a world of my own.
Ideas for my own D&D character, a himbo barbarian called Vicros who acts before he thinks, began to form alongside thoughts of a world he could exist in. Imagining a place which is equally chaotic but all my own has kept me entertained for the past two years. Now, it’s finally time to turn that idea into my debut novel.
