Hey! My name’s Andy and this page is all about me because I’m apparently that self-centered… I’m not even famous and it’s all gone to my head. I need to be stopped!
If you wanted a very brief description of who I am then I would say…
“I’m an author and educator with a passion for storytelling and inspiring the next generation. My goal is to educate and entertain by presenting the less glamorous side of the railways and other subjects, I want to make learning fun an engaging”
Like most people- everyone in fact- it all started when I was born all the way back many many years ago in the 1990s… Worryingly I think I know class as an old man and now I think about it my back does kind of hurt and my knees play up when it’s cold.
I’ve always loved reading books, in fact- you can read my ramble about some of my favourite books by clicking right here. I loved escaping into a different world and reading any adventure book I could get my hands on. On top of that is my love of video games and cinema, I just wanted – and in many cases still want to- escape to other worlds that fuel my imagination.
I’ve been writing books since I was young enough to hold a pen, I never actually finished any of them, so I should really say I’ve been writing book pages since I was young enough to hold a pen, and in fairness, my handwriting probably hasn’t improved since then- in fact, my handwriting really hasn’t improved since then.
Despite a whole childhood of writing, I never did anything with them until early 2016 I was given a dash of inspiration when looking after my young nephew, Phoenix, who asked an innocent question.
“What would happen if a vampire bites a fairy?”
That sort of inspiration earns you the “main character” in a book, so I based the main protagonist of the Phoenix saga on an aged version of my nephew.
It makes me feel old but the real-life Phoenix is actually almost 10 when I’m writing this which is how old he is in the books. When I first released it, everyone said that a 10-year-old couldn’t do some of the things he does in the book.
Now he’s nearly a teenager and I stand justified that he can do everything he does in the books in real life. I do hope he never has to take on a vampire in real life though- that’s mostly the truth I think.
There are still a lot of adventures for Phoenix to have, and I look forward to bringing more to life over the coming years.
Enter the railways
When I was 17 I got a job talking about steam locomotives. I had no idea then but it would lead to the next dose of inspiration for my series of books. “The not-so-romantic railways”.
I’ll be honest I grew up not enjoying anything about the railways, beyond a very casual approach to them. It just goes to show you never know what will end up inspiring you.
I started writing the Not-So-Romantic Railways mostly because I had great insights, through work, into what the majority of people are interested in- and it’s not the in-depth engineering side of the railways.
The majority of books already out there are either for younger children (think Thomas the Tank Engine sort of range) or people with deep interests in all the small details. (How many rivets are in a boiler, how does chain-driven valve gear work… etc.)
There’s nothing really for those more casual railway fans, people who want to learn more information about some of the human stories that you don’t tend to hear. It’s part of the railways that interests me the most so I’m really writing from an informed place.
I’ve tried to place the Not-So-Romantic Railways series somewhere in the middle. There are flashes of engineering stuff, but the main bulk is pitched so anyone – knowledgeable about the railways or not- can pick it up and hopefully learn something new.
Everything I write in the non-fiction world I want to be accessible and affordable for everyone which is why I’ve decided to independently publish (posh way of saying self publish) my works. It means I control the price and it also gives me creative control. The lower price bracket for my books is really important for me… after all what’s the point of writing books if nobody can afford to read them?