I’m a genuine Shropshire Lad, but have lived many other places and settled in Cornwall in 2016. For some of my life I was a not-very-successful professional musician, but for the last 35 years of my working life I was an IT professional with particular expertise in computer and network security, and that spilt over into writing blogs, articles and conference papers, with quite a lot of editing and translation.
Most of the first books I authored or co-authored (or at least contributed chapters to) were all IT-related. When I retired in 2019, I could expand my musical and authoring aspirations without worrying about making a living or pleasing the critics. Lockdown and later health issues have made it more difficult to get out to play or do readings, but recording at home and self-publishing has helped keep me busy. Only one of my recent books has had much security content (a book about Facebook), though I have current projects based on my more durable articles and papers. Others have been about music – not only my own, but also a rather niche treatise on Nashville guitar tuning – local history, and some allegedly humorous words and pictures. My (main) current project, though, provisionally entitled “The Lost Girl” is a collection of somewhat interconnected fiction.
If that doesn’t put you off, then the information here probably will: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/David-Harley/author/B001HPS1NK
Herman Hesse: 'The Glass Bead Game'
Charles Dickens: 'Martin Chuzzlewit' and 'Hard Times'
Edith Pargeter's 'Heaven Tree' trilogy
Practically anything by Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams
Charles Causley selected poems (I suppose I should mention Housman too, given how many of his poems I've put to music).
Charles Mackay 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'
Several books by John le Carré, especially 'The Honourable Schoolboy' and 'The Little Drummer Girl'
Most of Phil Rickman's 'Merrily' books
Borges 'Ficciones' and 'El Aleph' (in translation!)
Several books by Stephen King - like King himself, I'm somewhat in love with Holly Gibney - and Dean Koontz (especially Odd Thomas - perhaps there's a pattern here). I've just read King's 'On Writing', but it might be too late for me to benefit much from it, even the bits I agreed with. I enjoyed the more biographical elements, though.
Fresh fruit with vanilla soy yoghurt. I don't always eat so healthily, though. But at least I don't have to face warmed-over scrambled egg, indeterminate meat products and hash browns in conference hotels any more. On the other hand, sometimes - on holiday or just out in the morning - I can't resist something resembling a full English.
Crime - especially Scandi noir, but also some American, Australian and South African authors. I miss Mo Hayder, though her last book confused me utterly. I quite like 'cosy crime' novels as long as they're well-written. After all, I grew up reading and enjoying a lot of 'golden age' crime fiction.
That said, I love some science fiction, especially the classic writers like Clarke, Asimov, Knight, Bradbury etc. but I'm less keen on modern space opera.
Oddly enough, these aren't genres I've written much in myself.
Indeterminate. I have an arthritic condition in my toes, so I tend to need shoes larger than my nominal shoe size (which I think is 8, but it's many years since I bought a pair in that size) to avoid discomfort. Basically, it’s a case of looking for footwear that doesn’t press on my toes! Don't you wish you hadn't asked?
It's an addiction. And a liability, since I probably don't have enough years left to do something useful with all the drafts and scraps of verse and prose that are waiting for my attention. Which in turn makes me feel guilty, even though probably no one else will care much if they never see the light of day. Still, it keeps me busy and some people seem to like (some of) what I write, which is good for the ego.
Almost invariably, especially when I was allowed to be creative (which happened rather rarely in secondary school, admittedly). But I enjoyed reading (even compulsory texts), and writing about what I was reading. Curiously, I even enjoyed précis exercises, which proved an unexpected asset much later when it came to preparing abstracts for conference paper submissions, which normally specify a maximum word count. I didn't hate grammar and syntax either. Just as well, since editing and proofing (as well as authoring and translation) became important elements of my job description, in the last decades of my working life.
My main current project is mostly about parenthood. As you might expect, some of my own experiences have fed into that: not least a few years as a step parent, and much later as a single parent.
I don't think I'm interesting enough to make a good villain, and as a hero, my prerequisite flaws are generally more irritating than tragic, as my ex-wives would probably testify. I might be OK as a pantomime villain, melodramatic and incompetent like the Hooded Claw, perhaps.
In my office/studio, which is a bit crowded with books, files/folders, recording gear and instruments, but comfortably distant from the TV and phone. And also from most Persons From Porlock, so I can pretend I didn't hear the door, in the hope that my wife will get to it first.
Living within sight of the sea - well, you can see it from one place on the stairs - and ten minutes walk from an Iron Age hillfort and views of St. Michael's Mount. The picturesque remains of several disused mine shafts. A still-thriving local music scene. Some of this has already found its way into several songs and some verse and articles. Some lovely gardens (Glendurgan, Lanhydrock, Godolphin and many others.) The light, and some of the art and photography it's inspired. The Tate St. Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden. The almost non-stop festivals, though I'm not able to get to many. And so much more.
I think it's that it assuages my curiosity. My career in security had a lot to do with research and exploring unexpected rabbit holes that led to further rabbit holes (and worm holes), and as I lean further toward fiction, I find myself needing to know what characters will do or say next. A psychologist, though, might point to me need to keep working even though I'm not subject to a financial imperative (though as the UK continues to decline, who knows how long that'll be the case). And I do write (sometimes) about things that enrage me, like criminal exploitation and politics (sometimes the same thing...) Of course, it might just be that it allows me to keep busy without having to interact directly too often with other people, yet I still have a large enough audience to appeal to my vanity. 'Large enough' being any number larger than zero.
I was still working (part-time) when we moved to Cornwall, but the move was one of the first steps to retiring, and thus toward the freedom to write more of what interests me rather than what pays. It may have helped that it became harder for those who considered themselves 'the boss of me' to contact me! Living out in the country made it harder to be distracted than it had been living in the middle of a town (much as I liked Ludlow. and miss some of the people in the area). Also, there's the coincidence of living next door to the novelist Deborah Fowler. While there isn't much overlap between the content of our books, and she's sold many more books than I'm ever going to, our many chats about writing and the publishing industry had a lot to do with my dipping my toes once more into bookwriting rather than restricting myself to recording and blogging. So it's her fault!
A collection of articles in a book called 'Fatherhood' edited by Sean French. And the provisional title 'The Lost Girl' comes from 'The Sign on Rosie's Door' by Maurice Sendak, where Rosie's alter ego Alinda describes herself as 'Alinda the lost girl'. Though I guess that working title will have to be changed, since I've just seen mention of a novel by Carol Drinkwater with the same name. I can't deny that some of my own family history is creeping in, in some form.
At university in the late 60s, I was sometimes known as Eeyore (of course, that referred to the books rather than the later films): I think I've mostly cheered up since then (except when I read or listen to the news), but I'm probably never going to be Tigger. Ideally, someone who displays the antisocial traits I can't bring myself to display in real life. If there's ever a cartoon version of Hugh Laurie in 'House', I'm up for that. Or, perhaps, as my eyesight deteriorates, Mr Magoo. Or I could easily be Mr. Clumsy, even with my eyesight intact, though I don't usually favour a moustache.
Toast... I did have aspirations in vegetarian cooking in another life, and there was even talk of opening a restaurant, but I'm no longer vegetarian or aspirant. That's partly because my wife is a much better (and more organized!) cook than I was. (I still manage to eat when she's away, though.) But I'm hot stuff on washing pans, chopping veg and loading/unloading the dishwasher.
Going right back to junior school - perhaps even before that, when I learned to read - I always knew I wanted to be a writer and/or musician, though I would never have guessed that I'd be most successful (financially, at any rate) as a technical author. At least now I’m in the privileged position of being able to write what and how I like, without worrying about critical and financial approval.
"Do as I say, not as I do!" After reading Steven King's 'On Writing' I see that he's used the same cliché. I suppose it's healthy for writers to prefer (using a not-much-fresher cliché) to be a signpost rather than a destination. Especially if the destination is essentially to be a target for impersonation by an AI engine. But that's a hobby horse to ride another day.
(1) If you try to work on too many projects at once, you may never complete any of them. Definitely one of my own faults.
(2) However good you are at proofreading and editing, the hardest text to proofread is what you've written yourself, because you tend to read what you intended to say, not what is actually there. However nervous you are about exposing your work, a good proofreader is a good idea, even if you have to pay them.
(3) Put not your faith in spellcheckers and grammar checkers. Even the best can make errors, and the worst are proof of just how incompatible the words Artificial and Intelligence can be.
(4) Free advice is not always a bargain. Including these thoughts...
(5) There are many resources that advise on the conventions for a particular genre, and some are excellent. But sometimes breaking rules makes a positive difference!
(6) Research is often important. You may consider us picky, but some of us will always be put off if you confuse shotguns and rifles, viruses and Trojan Horses, or Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë.
(7) Beware of the sharks...
Not any more. I used to have a cat called Hobbit, but he kept biting my daughter, so I had to pass him on. (She had goldfish and sea monkeys, too, but they inconsiderately kept dying. She and her husband have a quirky but lively cat of their own now, so I guess the circle of life has closed satisfactorily.) My wife and I had three cats for a while, but they're all now frequenting the scratching post in the sky: we didn't replace them because we then lived in a rental property for a while. Since we live surrounded by dog owners, we've thought of acquiring one of our own (a dog, not an owner), but haven't yet got around to it. But I'm on generally good terms with the dogs next door!
A former girlfriend once told me I was Kipling's 'cat who walked by himself', and she probably wasn't far wrong. I am a little more sociable now than I was then, though my default mode is still 'antisocial and hates being beholden to others'. I don't necessarily refuse catnip and other treats, though. And I've been weaned off the litter tray.
Not so often nowadays, as it can impair my concentration. Mind you, practically anything impairs my concentration nowadays, including breathing. If I do listen to music while writing, it tends to be Radio 3 or Coast FM, though if I'm doing a music review (which I do occasionally for folking.com) I'll sometimes listen to what I'm reviewing, even when I'm not at that time working on the review. Earlier on in my career, I did listen to a lot of rock, blues and folk while working: Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, John Renbourn and Peter Gabriel got a lot of plays, as I remember. That said, there were certainly occasions when I stopped work to play along to a particularly juicy solo, or attempt to... At this moment, I'm listening to myself: I'm not usually that much of a narcissist, but I'm collaborating remotely on an album with an old friend, and he's just sent me a rough mix of one of the tracks we're working on, for my comments.
