Profile: Alan Donaldson

About This Author

I grew up in Katoomba, west of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia and now live in the Hunter Valley, about two hours drive north from Sydney. As a member of the audience, I've always enjoyed Science Fiction, a good mystery, suspense or thriller (often those last three are buddies). Watching was never enough though, I craved creating these stories and, far back into my childhood, I was always making up stories, writing them down - and then losing them. When a young man, I was dissuaded from pursuing a career in writing. "How would you live?" the career adviser asked me. So I fell into a career in Information Technology and there I wandered for over thirty years. At fifty, I realized writing a book was definitely on my "bucket list" and so, I wrote a 180,000 word monolith, to be first of eight in a series; then set out to get it published - as you would. Right? Several rejection slips deadened my hopefulness a tad - but not my resolve. At a writer's conference, I asked a panel of representatives from publishers about my chances of getting the book/series published. After the group exchanged awkward glances, one person took the role of speaker and said quietly to me, "Well, is your name William Shakespeare?" Undaunted, I set out to learn more about writing which, of course, I should have done first. I wound up completing a Master of Arts (Writing), and reading a shelf full of books on writing techniques and advice from the likes of Mr Stephen King. (On Writing - A Memoir Of The Craft - Stephen King) Following particularly the advice of Mr King, I began fervently reading books from every genre and writing as much as I could. I have now written many short stories, completed six novels and I am working on another two novels. My IT background helps me recognise the metamorphosis the publishing industry is going with eBooks and Print On Demand (POD) publishing. Self-publishing seems to be the way for an unknown writer to try. Scotophobia - Fear Of The Dark seemed a good book to publish first. Many readers, some I would expect no favors from, have said they enjoyed the book. I hope you will too.