About Me

Tollesbury, Essex, United Kingdom
I was born in the Summer of 1969 in Dagenham, just on the border of East London. School was largely unproductive but enjoyable, setting me up for something of a wayward but interesting life! On leaving school I had various jobs including putting up stalls at Romford Market, working in a record shop, putting up ceilings, gardening and road sweeping. After resigning from an insurance company to play in a band, I found myself unemployed for two years. Then finally I got back on my feet and I've been a psychiatric nurse since 1997. I wrote A Cleansing of Souls when I was 22 years old and followed it up with Tollesbury Time Forever almost twenty years later. I started writing The Bird That Nobody Sees in September 2011 and it was released in July 2012. In terms of writing, my heroes are Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. I would also include Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as literary influences. So that's me I guess - scruffy, happy and in love with literary fiction, music and life...

Saturday 1 October 2011

Spreading the word...

It's been  a couple of weeks or so now and there has been no reply yet from the agents that I sent the book to. Very much par for the course from what I understand. Over a hundred people have so far checked this page out though which is very pleasing - although I'm fiendishly trying to come up with ways to increase that number in the hope that someone may know someone who in turn may know someone who likes the look of the book!

There will be some publicity for it over the next couple of weeks within the NHS Trust that I currently work which can only help. I guess the more I think about the book and FRUGALITY (see below!), the deeper I am looking at what I do on a day to day basis and the harder I am finding it to reconcile the two! As Paul Simon once sang - "some people say I think too much, others say no, no, you don't think as much as you should." The jury is very much out...

I suppose there are times where we can feel restricted by the choices we have made and fear making any further choices. In the book I'm reading at the moment there is a lovely line that says - "we should not define ourselves by those things we have done, but by those we are about to do." Nothing about how others define us. Working in a big organisation, how others define us can have a big impact. It's amazing how light you feel when you let that go.

I will be adding a few more excerpts from the book over the next few weeks, again in the hope that it may garner some interest. Please feel free to comment or do the 'follow' thing!

5 comments:

Chris Humpherys said...

Good luck mate. I'm new to this whole bloging thing as well and like you, am interested in one day seeing my work published. I am currently working on on my first novel and hope to have it finished by the end of the year. Im keeping an eye on your progress as I am curious to see how it all unfolds and sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Stu Ayris said...

Thank you so much. The very best of luck to you. Anything I can do to help in terms of the novel, please let me know. Keep on keeping on!

Stu

Catriona said...

Good luck! I read your 25 word pitch on Nicola Morgan's website. As a huge Beatles fan and a fellow writer, I was intrigued!

Wend said...

Hang on in there, Boss-man...FRUGALITY will save the day! Wish I knew someone who knows someone...but sadly most people I knwo also work for this montrous corporation we know as the NHS! Will plug the book where ever I can though.xx

Stu Ayris said...

Thanks Catriona! Glad you found it intriguing! Will let you know how things progress!

Wend - FRUGALITY will indeed save the day - the crusade has begun!