Putting words together is more complicated than I thought – at least, to a professional standard
Like everyone else, my efforts at the Three R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) began at primary school. I didn’t do too badly at the first two, and once I’d graduated to adolescent level, I found that, if the words were put together with a little more thought, I could make my classmates laugh.
That’s my education, then. Not that it did much good. I left puberty school with O levels in English Language and English Literature (plus a sprinkling of others, including Latin), but it was never going to put enough zeros on my payslip.
I lacked direction. But I knew what I liked: drama and photography. Let’s skip the embarrassing incident with the actor’s union Equity, and focus on what I did next: two years assisting a professional photographer. That was in the glory days of pre-digital, so I find it strangely satisfying that (forty or so years later) my passion for (digital) photography has resulted in my own page on Flickr!
Over the course of thirty years, I established myself as “a Civil Servant”. But throughout that same period I found my side-line with the theatrical community much more satisfying, if not particularly lucrative. My efforts with words resulted in awards, both as an actor and as a writer. And once I “retired early” from my desk job (euphemism for redundancy) in 2009, I found I could really get going, by writing a novel.
The results can be found on this website.
If you’ve read this far, then I applaud you. Perhaps you found this page because you wanted to know more about the man behind the books. I trust you are satisfied? Likewise, if you stumbled on my name through listening to a recording from The JAPE Collective, did this help? [Comments and constructive feedback are always welcome.]
If, on the other hand, you are looking for someone to help you with your own words – possibly to publish something yourself, or to help with writing web content, then bear in mind I’m a freelance with over 50 years’ experience. I also don’t like milk in my tea or coffee, but if you can run to a slab of fruitcake as well, then maybe we should talk?
Or there’s always the direct approach? [alan@alanveale.com]
