I published my first articles in magazines and a booklet before leaving school. So, as you can see, I always wanted to write. Writing fiction has been my lifetime ambition, but success was more difficult to achieve, and there were several unsuccessful attempts during my twenties. I did manage to publish five books on technical subjects connected with my work in technology (under a different name), and I have also been in the writing profession for most of my life, but it is only now that I have got back to the joy and challenge of writing fiction.

 

My debut novel, a psychological thriller called 'Sandman', was published in August 2010. Details, reviews, and a first chapter extract can be found on my author website iankingsley.com. I also publish articles that are hopefully of interest to other writers on this website. In addition, I run and edit a long-established travel website, synergise.com, which publishes travel articles covering worldwide destinations.

 

My fiction writing influences include Peter Carey, Pat Conroy, Ian McEwan, Minette Walters, John Irving, Alexander McCall Smith, and others; the latter is a master of characterisation. I prefer books with depth as well as pace, and in my own writing, I try to offer a sensible balance between literary depth and the easy-reading of popular fiction. I also try to ensure that everything contributes towards plot development. I am well aware the reason for my early failures in fiction was due to poor characterisation. When I took up writing fiction again, I made sure I worked on this particular weakness. As a result, I devised an intuitive characterisation tool that is offered to help other writers. It details 16 normal character types and 16 associated abnormal types – all based on accepted psychological types. I think this paid-off, because I was delighted when bestselling author, Sophie King (author of ‘The Wedding Party’ and other books), gave ‘Sandman’ the following endorsement: “A gripping psychological read with characters that reach out and grab you. A real page-turner.” Subsequent reviews have also commented on good characterisation.

 

I published a non-fiction book called 'Reality Check: Science Meets Religion' as an eBook in 2011. It aims to show science and religion can be seen to be complementary: hopeful a great help to people who have problems ratifying apparent conflicts between the two.

 

I will be publishing a most unusual novel early in 2013. Please watch out for that. I shall tell more on Twitter!