My name is Ian Douglas and I live in the beautiful, historic town of Ipswich in England. Rumour has it that I was dropped on a typewriter when I was born so my fate was sealed from the very beginning.
I love to write. People sometimes ask me why I want to write and I often reply by asking them why they want to breathe!
I want to write so that I can touch people’s lives. I want to transport their minds away from the troubles of this world and let them become part of, and immersed in, the stories bubbling up inside my head. I do not want to sell crate loads of books which just sit unread on bookshelves but rather see people carrying dog eared copies of my books which have been read so many times the pages have become loose and have had to be selotaped back in. I want people to pick up one of my books and not be able to put it down until they have finished it. For them and their loved ones to desperately search the internet and bookshops trying to find other books I have written because they enjoy them so much. I do not seek fame but rather to touch the lives of my readers so that even when they physically finish reading my book it remains a treasured memory in their minds forever.
Before you know it you are waking up in the middle of the night desperately fumbling around in the dark for your trusty pen and notepad afraid to switch on the light in case it wakes up your partner. Then frantically trying to note down the twist in your storyline which has just come into your head before the moment of inspiration passes and the sigh of “not at it again are you?” comes from the other side of the bed.
Then there is the way you always seem to be looking at the people around you in supermarkets and on the street wondering if you could use them as characters in your next masterpiece. If they are nice to you then perhaps you will use them in your next romantic novel… but if they annoy or upset you then they are ideal models for one of your characters who will die an excruciatingly painful, lingering death.
Or your almost superhuman ability to recognise someone using a Kindle on a crowded bus or train and feel an uncontrollable urge to get up close to them to discover what they are reading.
Or how about the way you get excited when a friend introduces you to a fellow writer and you feel an uncontrollable urge to fumble around in your bag and show them your latest manuscript and desperately ask them for their critique.
I hope that you get as much enjoyment out of reading my work as I get creating it.
May your pen never run out of ink and your Kindle battery never go flat!