Life Changes: Employment and Disability Journey

A rare insight 

I don't write about myself often; I don't see myself as interesting, that view is not shared by my friends.

I was born in Middlesborough, North Yorkshire. I say I was born in Yorkshire, as it was Yorkshire when I was born, since then the area has changed its name twice.

My family moved to the Bristol area of England in 1963 when my father got a job in the area. I lived in Clevedon, North Somerset from 1963, until 1986 when I got married, and moved to Bristol.

I spent two years in college, in my teens, before I joined the Royal Air Force, in in 1974. While in the Royal Air Force, I served in Scotland, Germany, and Ireland.

I was in Germany months after the Baader Meinhof group were sent to jail, for the period of my tour NATO was on full alert, expecting an attack at any moment.

I was in Ireland towards the end of the period known as The Troubles. Again, this was a time when an attack could come at any time; being English in Ireland at the time was almost as bad as being English during my time at RAF Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland. Added to the nationality issue was that RAF Lossiemouth used to be Royal Navy base, so we had the Royal Navy against the Royal Air Force as well.

While I was in Ireland, I was awarded the General Service Medal, it wasn't until recently I felt worthy of the medal, when a man pointed out that any service personnel in Ireland wee liable to come under attack, at any time from a terrorist. I lost the medal several years ago in a fire.

While I have not been on the frontline, like people in Israel, and the Ukraine, I have been close, and I can empathise with the tensions they are under.

After leaving the Royal Air Force, I spent a year unemployed before I joined the museum service in Bristol, were I stayed for 15 years. I was made redundant under the Labour government under Tony Blair, when they implemented the Zero-hours rule; at the time, I was the last man on a regular contract.

Though I lost my job, I didn't see it as a loss, at the time I left, the museum had become a police state. again, going against a Labour policy of banning a closed shop where only certain people can get a job. In some jobs, it is accepted to get a job though your family connection, mainly because those jobs are high-risk such as mining, and fishing.

In 2011, an injury I had during my years in the RAF returned. The original injury was a slightly torn tendon in my left foot, on a rainy Friday in 2011, the injury became a torn tendon, leaving me disabled. I was fortunate, the injury happened while I was at home, five minutes either side of that time, I would have been about a mile from the house.

It was at this time, I decided to write short stories for my friends online. Mainly, because I am not a TV junky; I can watch TV, but I can't spend all day watching it, these days I do watch more, but that is more YouTube than TV.

My early rep as a writer came from writing ghost stories, which I still write, and enjoy. My most notable period came during 2012, when a collection of short stories I wrote earned an award, and my science fiction series - Forgestriker - sold well.

I class myself as a writer, not a genre-writer, I have written stories in many genres, but I cannot write a sex story; I have written stories with sex in, but not a story were sex is the theme.

My latest stories are spiritual stories, and stories based in, or around India.