I’ve learned a lot since I started writing a dozen years ago. I’ve learned about craft, character, structure. How to develop a story with emotional impact. I went from writing highly complex multi point of view fantasy, to thrillers, to first person stories from the heart. You won’t recognize my writing from book 1 to book whatever-number-this-is. I think that’s a good thing.

I’ve been lucky not to have had a traditional publisher. Why? Because I think I would have kept writing more of the same. That’s what publishers want from a writer. To build a brand in a genre and an age group. That’s what readers want too! They want a book they’ll pick up and they’ll KNOW they’re going to love it. You can’t say that about my body of work. It’s all very different. Or most of it. I think we could group Assured Destruction with Counting Wolves, Ray Vs the Meaning of Life and the one I’m currently working on, Heart Sister. I believe I’m ready for a traditional publisher now. I think I know what I want to write.

But Ray Vs the Meaning of Life beats the others I think for two reasons. Humour and theme.

I’ve never considered myself a humour writer. Or even a funny guy. But I can write kooky characters when I need to. Which brings me to theme. When you pick a difficult theme like say anxiety, fear, or organ transplantation you need humour to provide balance. So the darker and bigger the theme, the more humour you need.

The opposite of a meaningful life is a meaningless one. That’s terrifying. And meaty. So it requires a great deal of humour. Getting this balance right in Ray was the biggest trick of my writing to date.
If you can nail delivering on a big theme, it can deliver a big impact.

Generally speaking, I have a sense a book is going well if I’m crying when I read it (for the 10th time!). A happy cry. Usually at the ending, and a few teary parts in between. I cried a lot with Ray Vs the Meaning of Life.

I hope you enjoy it.