Stephen Lawrence (author)

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My name is Stephen Lawrence and I am 65 years old, a retired Mechanical Engineer. I have been writing and self publishing since 2009. I currently have 5 self published books and 1 work in progress.

I was born in Gloucester in 1953. I went to a Secondary modern School, leaving at the age of 15 to begin an Engineering Apprenticeship. At 21, I went to work for a Large International Company where eventually I progressed through to a managerial role.

After having worked for that company for 31 years, I finished my Engineering / Manufacturing career at the age of 52; it was then that my wife and I moved to Spain to live.

Activities.

I have always been an active sportsperson. I played football in the local Sunday League, then I took up Judo, and gained my Blue belt before giving it up. At 21, I started playing squash and played for many years in the local club ladders and leagues. 1980 I got involved in Scuba Diving and gained my 2nd class certificate and was a branch instructor for a while. During my sports diving era, I joined the RNR, the Royal Navy Reserve  with HMS “Flying Fox” who were based in Bristol, and began training as a ship’s diver. I stayed with that for around 2 years, and spent some time on the minesweeper “HMS Carron”.  1990 my interest turned to Windsurfing  & Golf.

In 2008 I began writing a diary as a pastime, I later had ideas for a book and began writing in earnest. After a few aborted attempts in the beginning, I have now written several novels.

What inspired me.

I wanted to write a book with a background that I was familiar with. Most books I read are based in America, so I decided I wanted to write about something closer to home.

I lived in Cheltenham for several years and thought it was the ideal setting for “Moondance”. The story line really just came from nowhere in particular. Although the characters in the book are purely fictional, some of the character names are of friends and family.

The actual writing of this book took me about a year to complete, working on it in my spare time.

“The Major” was an idea that came to me after reading a dozen books or so, from which I got my basic storyline, then I found that a variety of ideas just flowed as I wrote. Again I endeavoured to incorporate places I knew; the Cotswold’s and Painswick in Gloucestershire; Guardamar and LaMata in Spain.

“Luke” was to be a different genre of book. I wanted to try my hand at a ghost story, however my intentions became diverted as I wrote this and although there is a ghost in the story, it did not turn out to be a true chilling ghost story that i intended.

“Sacred Bones & a Diary”. I wanted to try my hand at an adventure with a little action thrown in, this book took 2 and 1/2 years to finish due to it being nearly five hundred pages long and containing a lot of dates and detail. It was very satisfying to finally complete it.

My most recent book, "Sanctuary" is a story of an ex-Navy diver who becomes involved with a drug syndicate and is coerced to murder.

I currently have work in progress of a different nature.

My Influences.

My main influences are the Authors; James Patterson; Michael Connelly; Jeffery Deaver; Ian Rankin; Clive Cussler.

The social media i use is My own website www.stevesbooks.co.uk Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, as well as friends and family e-mail etc.

I have had some good reviews with local newspapers in Spain and the UK.

My sales are good at the start then reduce to a trickle. I am proud of my achievements so far, and do not rely on my writing to earn a living. However, translating my work would open up a greater audience and therefore a greater probability of sales. This is why i have chosen to register with Babelcube.

User links: Website



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