The Lost Books

In case you're wondering what happened to these books, I think I have paper copies of them somewhere but not electronic copies. I had thought about taking another look at them, re-working them maybe and trying again but in the end it wasn't worth it. What I have done is re-cycle some of the ideas contained in those first books. For Instance, I have written another book called, 'The Innocent Accomplice'. I liked that title and the juxtaposition of those two words.

So, was it all a waste of time? Yes and no. Yes because the books were never published which is the whole point of writing in my view, and no because, if nothing else, I was learning the craft of writing. By book number four I was a better writer than when I started out but still not good enough.

I was still operating under the delusion that publishers would metaphorically read between the lines of my imperfect work and decide to take me on with a view to nurturing my talent. Plenty of evidence to the contrary did nothing to dent my certainty. By now I was working at a high school in Blackpool, which in years to come would give me material for one of my most successful books, but that was all in the future.

So, I started writing again. Book number five would prove to be...