And this is me...

...as Mike Yarwood used to say. (For those who don't know, Mike Yarwood was an impersonator who had his own prime-time show in the 70's. I used to love watching it as a kid, but now all I can remember is him saying "ooh, Betty" as Frank Spencer. And his "this is me" at the end, where he used to sing in his own voice. I can't recall if he was actually any good or not, and I don't want to shatter my rose-tinted lenses.) Anyway, I digress.

After years of procrastination, I've finally got round to starting a blog, of which this is the first entry. And now, as I sit at my keyboard, I'm trying to remember all the witty comments I'd thought of earlier (how you would have laughed!) but my mind's gone blank, and I'll surely remember them as soon as I post this (so it bodes well for future entries).

One thing I must apologise for is my use of (parentheses). I've no idea where that's come from, as I never use them in my normal writing (not yet, anyway). Writing tip for the day, then, is not to get (parentheses) confused with [brackets]. Here endeth the lesson.

Ah, writing. It's what I love to do, which makes the delay in starting this blog all the more mysterious. I've been putting pen to paper - or finger to key - (ha, no parentheses there! aw, damn!) since I was in school. Back then it was stories about how myself and my friends saved the world from zombies, methods of their despatch based on whatever dodgy VHS copy we'd watched that week. And so it continued: for too many years I started what would be the next best thing, and never finished it. Fast forward 20 years, and I had a short story published by the fantastic Pantechnicon e-zine, which sadly no longer exists (although I might show the short in a future blog). It gave me the confidence to crack on with a novel, which has expanded into what will be a trilogy. I'm halfway through my latest edit of the first book, and then I'll send it off to agents and publishers, sit back and write for the rest of my life. For such is the plan, possibly with a rural retreat in France added into the mix.

So, that's me (briefly). There'll be more later, I'm sure - the last thing I want to do for my first blog is infodump about my age and vital statistics, although it's safe to say I'm a bit curvier than I used to be...

Before I do go, I'd just like to say Terminator 2 was on Sky1 last night and it's still fantastic. I've never seen the third one or the one with Christian Bale, and am perfectly happy with that state of affairs, thank you.