In 1991, whilst based with the British Army in Northern Ireland, I wrote a novel. ‘The Titans’. I sent it to four international publishers. Three declined it – one without so much as a word in response.

The Deputy Editor at the fourth wrote to me. ‘The Titans’ was the best thing she’d read in some time. All she needed to do, was get her editor to read it on his return from New York – and she’d be in touch to discuss things further.

I waited.

Eventually she wrote a second letter. Her editor felt changes were needed. Was I willing?

I wasn’t. I wrote back. (Pre-email era).

Six months later she wrote again. ‘The Titans’ remained one of the strongest works she’d read in some time. Would I reconsider? She included her number and asked me to call.

I called. We had a pleasant conversation. I can only recall one detail – I sounded normal, she told me she had expected someone mildly psychopathic.

‘The Titans’ has squatted on floppy discs, CD-ROMs, printouts and computer hard drives from that day to this. No longer. The protagonist, Axel Williams, will have his freedom. (I just need to proofread the novel first – the cover design is already complete.)

I’ll update when it’s ready.

I keep flirting with the idea of proofreading ‘The Titans’ and making it available as an ebook. Perhaps free for a while.

But I wrote it over twenty years ago. I’ve changed. My writing has changed. Would it give readers the wrong impression of the rest of my [more recent] work?

I’ve decided to make my poetry collection ‘Fedw’ available as a free ebook for those interested in my writing. As ever, if you’ve got something to say about the collection or any of the poems in it, do post a comment on this site.

Fedw is currently only available from Smashwords, but will appear on all leading ebook retail sites over the next few weeks.

I wrote ‘My Goat Ate Its Own Legs’ whilst in full-time work. I’d get home at 7 or 8pm, grab something to eat, skulk into the rear hallway of mine and my [now] wife’s rented Crouch End flat – then write until midnight or later. It took a lot of mental energy and I’d often go to bed unable to sleep because of all the thoughts whizzing around my mind.

So, with my wife’s full support, I took a year off work to write ‘A damaged boy’. After a year’s writing, I had over 50 stories. Of these I considered 45 of interest – 43 short and 2 novellas. Once I’d decided to self publish in ebook form, I then had to decide whether or include all 45.

If you purchase ‘A damaged boy’ you’ll see that I did include them all. Why? It’s a collection – you’ve got 45 opportunities to read something new from me whenever you’re in the mood.

And there’s a bonus. Because you can download the first 20% of the book free from sites like Smashwords – you get a fair few stories for no money.

Do let me know what you think of them – or post a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Alex