"I was born in Canada but grew up in a small South African mining town bordering the Kingdom of Swaziland. I left home for Sweden as soon as I matriculated to find my ancestral roots. A couple of years later, disillusioned by socialist politics, I went to South America, where I followed the Amazon and its tributaries from the jungles of Brazil to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. I then moved to Canada and worked in the High Arctic, before marrying and beginning my University studies. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Information Management and a Master's in Marine Management. I currently live with my wife of fifteen years in the village of Metcalfe (Ottawa), Canada. I have been writing poetry and short stories for over twenty years. A Faerie Ring is my first novel. It is an attempt at recording my culture, attitudes and beliefs in a way that my daughter may one day find interesting."

"In my second-last year in high school, I won second place in the headmaster's writing contest. I had ignored my English teacher's advice to 'write about something I knew' because I felt that my life was so normal, and instead threw together a piece of fiction that had no bearing whatsoever on my life. On accepting the award, I realized that I could not only write, but write well. I spent the next decade or so writing poetry and short stories for my own pleasure. It was only two years ago, in a fit of boredom, that I determined to write a full-length novel. A Faerie Ring was born, and I was a writer. I knew it for sure, when a stranger sitting next to me on a plane asked me what I did for a living, and I answered: "I'm an author."

"The common thread in all my writing is love, not fantasy. I chose faeries and trolls for my first novel because I believe that through childhood stories, they have greatly affected my personality and beliefs, and the main goal of A Faerie Ring is to help the people I love to understand me better."

"Yes, I experienced writer's block many times, and it appeared in two forms. The most familiar expression occurred as I wrote certain chapters and couldn't for the life of me figure out what should happen next. It always happened where I had not taken time in the planning process to flesh out the plotline in enough detail. In the end, I'm sure I could have saved days of writer's block by taking a few extra minutes to lay out my plotline. While writing A Faerie Ring, I solved the problem by incorporating personal emotional experiences that flowed more easily from my pen.

The other kind consisted of distractions that drew me away from my daily writing routine. I lost a few weeks of productivity this way, and the only solution involved self-discipline and a rediscovery of my motivation for wanting to tell the story in the first place."

"In the past twenty years I must have tried to start at least a hundred different novels, but never made it past ten pages. Some, I managed to salvage as short stories, but most found their way into the rubbish bin. For A Faerie Ring, I tried a new approach altogether. I modelled the structure of the book after typical Victorian novels which usually include a one-paragraph summary of the chapter. (something like: "In which Phileas Fogg and his companions venture across the Indian forests, and what ensued") I wrote the entire storyline this way. It took another week to re-order some of the sentences, and then I started writing. I didn't have a deadline for completion, but I committed myself to writing every night of the workweek, regardless of how I felt. This was enough for me to complete the novel, without restricting my freedom."

"I belong to Ottawa Independent Writers, but not for any creative reason: I simply suck at marketing and selling, and I joined the Group to benefit from their communal networking and publicity experience."

"People are always my primary inspiration, and family, in particular, inspired A Faerie Ring. For me, a winning idea is always emotionally loaded."

"I couldn't stand writing a conventional beginning-middle-end story. Too often, a book will be read once and then dumped or passed on. I wanted to create a book that would be completely different the second time round, and a book that begs to remain nearby. To do this, I needed to hide a story within the main story, and then let the reader discover the secret near the end. Cycles play an important part in A Faerie Ring, as they do in life, love and fantasy. As I struggled to overlap the first two storylines, I discovered that a third and fourth emerged. I found it almost impossible to continue the re-iterations completely, but a curious reader can find these scattered within the ring. Careful re-reading will also answer any riddles the readers did not manage to solve the first time round."

"Besides the power of word-of-mouth through my pilot readers, I have arranged for a few interviews and announcements in the local press. I will also establish a website for the novel, and share reader discussions through blogs and forums."

"Ironically, early readers of A Faerie Ring have been pressuring me to write a sequel. I tell them I already have. I am currently planning an action-packed grail quest romance set in 1^st Century Europe and the Middle East."

"It seems as if I cannot escape writing about love, so I am eager to explore its many forms through various genres. This probably puts me at odds with traditional approaches to writing; where an author becomes associated with one particular genre, but it does better reflect my eclectic style and slightly schizophrenic personality."

"Dreams! It is clearly exciting to be recognized for the sweat and effort that goes into a book by having it accepted by a publisher, but my dreams (both literally and metaphorically) are simply complements to reality that enhance my physical experiences. They are not ambitious; they are a fulfilment in themselves."

"I am fortunate to have a large family, and I am doubly fortunate that everyone in it has been supportive. My wife sacrificed a good year of evenings with me to see the completion of A Faerie Ring, and my parents, siblings and friends provide praise and word-of-mouth promotion that can't be bought from the best PR firms."

"Writing and reading are my avenues to relaxation. If the pressure surrounding me becomes insurmountable, I withdraw from the familiar for a while and visit the world. I might spend an hour in my attic in complete darkness, or I could spend a night in the middle of a farmer's field. Perhaps a weekend in the bush on a personal vision quest.

Hobbies are very evasive to me because my interests change irregularly and often. Whether I am fencing with an epée or pulling electricity from the ground, I will devote all my attention to that particular activity until another subject flies by and grabs my interest."

"I can't say I have ever analysed the impact my favourite books have had on my writing style, or on my life for that matter (I'll leave that to the critics out there). I say books, rather than authors, because I find people too variable and inconsistent to be idolised. That is why I have never looked up to anyone either. For example, one of my most favourite books is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, but that is the only book by him that I enjoy. That said, here is the remainder of my five favourite books: War with the Newts by Karel Capek; Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter; Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder; and, though it is not a book per se, The Wall by Pink Floyd. Do you see a trend?"

"Of course I would do things differently the second time round! Why would I want to learn the same lesson twice? "

The electronic book will undoubtedly replace the printed word. It simply doesn't make sense to burn so many resources and waste so much space with books, when the equivalent volume of electronic information is footprint-free and weightless. I can store every book in my personal library, every song in my CD collection and every photograph in my albums on one keychain memory stick. The problem is that we are such sentimental creatures. Let one more generation of computer-savvy kids evolve.

"Do whatever you want. If you want to be fastidious, go right ahead. If you feel like your story should be a disjointed string of metaphysical statements, do it. To write, you only need one thing: motivation strong enough to overcome any obstacle and temptation. With that you can accomplish anything, including a successful novel. PS: patience helps ;-)"