It is my great pleasure to welcome my friend and fellow author Andy Roberts to the blog to explain his writing journey. Thank you for your time today Andy and for sharing your inspiring journey to become a professional author. Over to you!
Thank you for inviting me back to your blog today Val. I am happy to have the opportunity to talk about my writing journey with your readers. I often wonder, what is a writing journey? Exactly what it says on the tin, I suppose; the trials and tribulations encountered when you start writing, including events that influenced your writing. If defining it is one thing, it’s harder to figure out what constitutes a writing journey.
Anyway, I’d say my writing journey initially started through my interest in table-top roleplaying games (made famous by Dungeons & Dragons). I was 17 years old and struggling to find players, so I started writing fan fictions set in various game settings. At the time, I was struggling with the jump from GCSE to A Level and using my writing to serve as an escape from the constant stress of assessments. Since I wasn’t doing any A Levels in Creative Writing, it gave me something the exam boards had no say in.
In 2014, I found a writers’ group in Newcastle-under-Lyme – the Renegade Writers – where I hoped to develop my writing further while getting by as an accountant. I wrote performance pieces which I read out at story café events held at the Gladstone Pottery Museum, and soon developed an interest in writing some Pirates of the Caribbean-style swashbuckler tales without the fantasy elements which bogged down the later films. At the end of 2015, I started drafting the first Kestrel and Scar story, Gentlemen of Fortune.
In 2016, a promotional email shared by the Renegades led me to the Writers’ Summer School at Swanwick, a picturesque residential conference in Derbyshire. Looking for a change of scenery, I discovered an extensive community of writers from all walks of life. The venue was picturesque, the courses were engaging, and I made a lot of new friends. I was even inspired to attempt National Novel Writing Month in November that year, although I struggled to meet the word count goal. After my second visit to Swanwick the following August, I realised that I was unhappy in the 9 to 5 life; the long hours were draining and left me with little energy to work on my creative endeavours.
In 2018, I left the accounts profession to study Creative Writing at De Montfort University. During this time, I experimented with new mediums, including poetry forms and screenwriting. I also got the opportunity to self-publish Gentlemen of Fortune for one of my university assignments, although I lost out on a lot of the student experience thanks to the pandemic. After graduating, I started ghostwriting while working on more Kestrel and Scar stories, self-publishing The Pirate King on Talk Like a Pirate Day in 2022, followed by The Homecoming a year later. This year, I put the three Kestrel and Scar stories into a single collection, The Lady’s Favour. I’m also working on another Kestrel and Scar story as part of “First Draft Fall”, a new writing challenge established as an alternative to NaNoWriMo.
I love seeing Kestrel and Scar get into all kinds of trouble. As long as I have the ideas for that, my writing journey continues.
The Blurb
Let me share the blurb of The Lady's Favour.
Isiah Kestrel is a romantic thrill-seeking Cornish libertine who tends to leap before he looks. Jacob Scar is a cynical Antiguan mercernary and ex-slave who likes to know what he’s getting into. Together, they roam the Caribbean in search of adventures.
The Lady’s Favour follows these wandering rogues as they meet Rosanna Barclay, recently arrived in Port Royal in search of her missing father. Their shared journey has them clashing blades with unscrupulous nobles, ruthless foreign agents, and some unearthed bad memories with age-old grudges.
This book includes “Gentlemen of Fortune”, “The Pirate King”, and “The Homecoming”, now together as one!
The Author
A. J. Roberts was born in Rochdale but moved to Staffordshire when he was 9. He has been writing as a hobby since the age of 17, having developed an interest through table-top roleplaying games. He predominantly writes actions/adventure in historical settings, with a particular fondness for writing about pirates.
After discovering Swanwick in 2016, he took his writing further. In 2018, he left his full-time job as an accountant to study Creative Writing at De Montfort University. He stayed in Leicester after graduation and currently works in recruitment.
The Links
The Lady's Favour: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D89BB8NK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndyRoberts66
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/A.-J.-Roberts/author/B09H51D8C1?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Blog 1 (Writing and Pop Culture Rambling): https://andrewswritersblock.blogspot.com/
Blog 2 (Poetry): https://liquorishallsorts.blogspot.com/
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