Category Archives: Life and stuff

Happy Holidays to all my readers!

Posted on by under Christmas and New Year, Life and stuff

So, it’s Christmas once again and there’s a strong feeling of deja vu in the air. Covid is still news as the Omicron variant spreads and, in the UK, the threat of a new lockdown is on the horizon. News is constantly coming out about how little right-wing Governments care for the lives of the people they rule and even democracy itself come to that. Lying and alternate ‘facts’ have inexplicably become okay with a lot of people but only if these align with their incredibly distorted world-view. Partisanship is worse than ever with both sides vilifying the other as the far-right wingnuts disappear down into the rabbit hole of total virtual insanity and see weird conspiracies all over the place.

Yet…

I must admit that I like that word. It means that there might be some light at the end of the deep dark tunnel that we’ve been living in lately. Yet, I see acts of kindness daily, people smiling at each other under their masks and children still getting excited about what delights Christmas Day will bring.

Continue reading →

Pain – a fact of life for both Mac Maguire and me

Posted on by under Disability, Life and stuff, Mac Maguire

Looking through all my posts, I realised that I’d never written anything about something that looms large in my life every single day and also in that of my fictional alter-ego, Mac Maguire. It can, by itself, decide whether a day is going to be good or bad.

Pain.

So, what brought this up in the first place? I was having an email conversation with one of my readers, who also has pain issues, when I was reminded of a review that someone left for one of my books a few years back. I’m paraphrasing here but it went something like – ‘It’s a good story and we know that the lead character suffers from pain but I don’t know why the author needs to keep mentioning it.’

To explain, Mac Maguire is the main character in my crime series of books. He’s a former police officer and murder specialist who was forced to retire from the force due to damage to his lower spine. This damage led to him having ongoing pain issues, in fact, pain issues very similar to mine! So, why did I saddle poor Mac Maguire with this in the first place? I was working at the BBC when I finally had to admit that I had a disability and it was only then that I began to notice the absolute lack of disabled people on TV and radio. This was also true for books and movies. So, when I began writing (ironically to take my mind off my pain) I wanted to ensure that I did my bit to make disabled characters more visible and that is why Mac Maguire inherited my pain issues.

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Tim Teagan, Prostate Cancer and what every man should know

Posted on by under Crime writing, Life and stuff

2020 was a horrible year. I know that Covid was a major issue for many people but, surprisingly perhaps, it rated fairly low when it came to my family’s other health issues during that year. One of these issues, and not the greatest, was my Prostate Cancer. I had been diagnosed just the year before when, by luck more than anything, my problems urinating became apparent. I didn’t go to my doctor though as, like most men, I just tried to ignore it. However, I was asked by my neurologist during a routine examination about this and she insisted on reporting it, just in case. While the problem could have been caused by the damage to the nerves in my lower spine (which is also the cause of my chronic pain), my neurologist wanted to rule out Prostate Cancer first. This proved to be a very wise decision and one for which I’m very thankful. Continue reading →

Covid Blues? Well, yes actually but it’s all good

Posted on by under Life and stuff

Although I have to say that there were times this year when I was very blue indeed. This wasn’t just down to Covid but a number of other things that coalesced into a mountain of worry that couldn’t be ignored or gotten around. I think I became quite depressed at times which is not my usual style.

A bottleneck slide

Thankfully, things have improved but it proved to be something of a warning to me. Since retiring I’m now trying to write full-time, however, this year has proved to be a problem. The combination of the virus and some quite extreme family issues has stopped me in my tracks. To date I have been averaging two books per year but so far this year I have yet to complete one. And this got me down. The problem was that I didn’t have a Plan B. Continue reading →

The virus, writer’s block and an operation

Posted on by under Life and stuff, Writing process

corona virus

In this era of Covid-19, I’ve found it incredibly difficult to write. I couldn’t see it at the time but, looking back, I can understand why this might have the case.

Lockdown was (and still is) an utterly strange experience. It’s a time when all the milestones that delineated the weeks and months have disappeared. We’re living in a sort of time fog with each day being much like the next. No meals out, no pubs, no family visits, no nothing.

And it is scary. Continue reading →

Seven books now published – so what next?

Posted on by under Life and stuff, Writing process

Book coverTwo Dogs, the sixth Mac Maguire mystery, has just been published in Amazon Books. I’ve also written a book of ghost stories 13 Ghosts of Winter so that makes seven in all. So what’s next?

I started writing seriously just over three years ago as a response to my pain issues. I’d dabbled with writing before but had never been able to stick at it long enough to come up with anything decent. I found that my work as an Audience Analyst gave me some respite during the week as it took my mind off the pain. However I then needed something to do at the weekends and so I started writing. Since then I’ve averaged a book every six months or so. I’ve now got another book nearly completed, The Black Vaults Experiment, which is a paranormal thriller and something of a new departure for me. I’ve also started on Mac 7 as I call it and, although I’ve got four or five chapters written, I’ve no idea where the story is going as yet. I always find this quite exciting as it’s almost as if I’ve got to write the story first so I can see how it all ends. Continue reading →