The Creative Path
I loved reading from an early age and by mid-teens I was steeped in Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books and Orwell’s 1984. I also loved the horror stories of Stephen King and James Herbert. King stayed with me, but Herbert I grew out of quite quickly. Reading inspired ideas, ideas that I hadn’t seen anywhere else and I began to write these down.
But really it began with dreams and music. I had very vivid and interesting dreams that took me to places that didn’t exist. I was also steeped in the music of David Bowie and inspired by his ethos to take ideas as far as he could and always strive to be original (authored article on Bowie here).
I lacked an academic calling because I had no idea what I wanted to do so I avoided university. I didn’t want to be an unemployed writer as the lack of money would reduce my freedom to travel and have experiences. So, I had a string of jobs; pest controller, heating engineer, office worker, security guard, that funded my writer’s garret and kept me in books.
I realised the ideas and scenarios conjured in my mind were unique and I began writing fiction in my late teens. I had been reading James Herbert’s horror stories and suddenly felt I’d outgrown them (sorry James). I could see the potential for horror to be grown up and intelligent. Clive Barker’ short story compilation Books of Blood appeared and seemed to confirm this.
Once I’d left home and moved to Beckenham, Kent I tested the water by writing a few short stories, but I had no idea if they were any good or what to do with them. At this point a synchronicity occurred - what Jung would term a ‘meaningful coincidence’. I bought a horror magazine called Fear and in the small ads at the back was a writers’ workshop. I called Scott Dorward who had set up the workshop and discovered that although Fear was a national magazine the writer’s workshop was located in the next street.
I’m eternally grateful to Scott for creating a space that safe for new writers to submit work and have it appraised. He has moved on writing horror gaming scenarios and currently co-hosts The Good Friends of Elias Jackson podcasts. You can hear an interview he did with me on cults and new religious movements here. He also did the initial edit of Days of Odd (link to book) for which I’m very grateful.
Inspired by positive feedback I compiled an early novel but it suffered from the new author syndrome of having too many ideas crammed into one book and was never published. I left Beckenham and travelled across Europe, North Africa and Eastern Europe. On my return I lived and worked in pubs in London’s Covent Garden.
My house was situated across the road from Watkins Bookshop (links) and I spend my enitre salary raiding their fantastic collection of new and second-hand esoteric books. One of the staff commented that I was in the bookshop so often I should get a job there.
I became a manager at Watkins and loved the mix of staff and visitors. When I joined we had an astrologer, easter philosophies expert, gnostic antiquarian, Sufi, member of the Golden Dawn, chaneller, tarot readers, psychologists etc. It was great group to take down the pub. And the customers were even more fascinating.
I made acquaintance with a number of secret societies of which the Priory of Sion for feature later in my writing.
End of part one. More to follow….