I began writing at an early age and completed stories and novels of my own as a result of childhood reading and imagination. I have been asked a few times now (in, for example, interviews on Lakeland Radio and Eden FM Radio) where I get ideas in the first place. It has always been my wish that ideas should be my own, though I obviously have many favourite authors and their tales. There is no real substitute for a good story as a means of developing characters, their experiences and relationships. No one should agonise too much about adapting ideas they have met with somewhere before. I was interested to hear the view expressed by a composer very recently that all the world's best tunes have already been used! I hope this is not true and I hope there are a few remaining adventures waiting to be told.

Whenever I have an idea that I feel might have potential, I write it down, however roughly, as soon as possible. Though there is then no chance of 'losing' the thought, the writing that follows does not always work without significant change. Even so, I rarely throw anything away. It is interesting to return to 'abandoned' stories after a few months or even a couple of years and find there a narrative worth pursuing after all.

As the years have gone on, I have made a point of writing often, every day if possible. I was interested to hear from the experience of one writer who said that he compared his work on days when he felt 'inspired' to days when he thought his work was poor. To his surprise he found that the quality of his writing was not significantly different! If true, this must be partly due to the way we can see with a fresh mind writing produced when we might have felt fatigued or just not in the mood. Certainly it is always easier to have something on the page before you, however weak, than facing a blank page. I have always written any narrative by hand in the first instance and then produced a type-written version later.

I wrote the first version of 'Raineland' in the 1980s. When I could not find a publisher at that time, I put it to one side and worked on other tales. Eventually I returned to it and made adjustments. What has pleased me most, however, is that I made no great change to what I believed were the crucial scenes, the episodes which were the driving force behind writing the novel in the first place. I have been heartened to hear from some of my closest friends that they too enjoyed these chapters most, the chapters that shaped the conclusion.