On November 17th 2003, I did one of the most influential and important things of my life so far; I sat behind a desk in a small pub in Wolverhampton, surrounded by 1000 copies of my first, new, shiny novel ‘A Fall of Stone’. For what seemed like hours, I chatted to people about the book and scrawled my name and a short message on copies until my right hand went numb. Now, some nine years along the road, I remember the smells, sounds and sights of that night every time I sign one of the dwindling hundred or so copies that are still left.

We (my lovely wife of 19 years, Max and I) did another of the most influential things of our lives two years later in October 2005 when we moved to our new house, five hundred miles away, on the Isle of Skye. Born out of a dream and a love for the island that grew over a ten-year period, we bought land, designed a house and paid to have it built.

Now, six years along the road from that particular milestone, I seem to be embarking on another of life’s adventures.

While I’ve never really stopped writing during the intervening period, I suppose it would be true to say that my output slowed down a little. A few entries in that most esteemed publication Waterlog and about a thousand entries in my web diary aside, I’ve not really put my head down and really got my teeth into anything. Many times I’ve had the ideas and many times I’ve seemed to be on the brink of something interesting, but always, every time, work and the pressures of life have contrived to blunder themselves into the way and held back my creative flow.

It’s a problem. I work now as a drawing and design draughtsman, beavering away on all things from site plans through new hotel toilets to full, modern looking, super technical ‘passive’ house designs with every detail shown and instructions for the build just like a great big jigsaw. And, like ninety per cent of the population, we’ve got bills to pay – lots of bills – and so the pleasures of life so often take an unjustified backseat, pushed out of mind by the more important things in life.

Now, with the launch of my new website and an upsurge in all things literary in my life, there are, I’m sure, good things ahead. Making contact with Peter Urpeth of Highland Arts was the catalyst I needed to get off my backside and get interested again and now, with the launch of the Skye Literary Salon and recent guest appearances at the Inverness version and, BBC Radio Scotland Culture Café my creative juices are just getting going…