Ideas come from anywhere at anytime but my book SWITCHBLADE came about because I was reading about how much debt countries around the world owed China. The US alone owed something like $1.5 trillion at that point, some 5 years ago.

Now anyone who's ever got got a loan of any sort knows that (a) you pay massive interest on money you borrow (b) the bigger the loan, the bigger the collateral you have to put against it and (c) if you miss payments, your creditors come after you and will seize that collateral.

So the question I asked myself was: what collateral had the US given China to borrow that much money? Was debt-collection a new way for countries to seize land and build empires? And from that a cyberpunk thrill-ride was born.

Why do I bring this up now?

Today I read an article about the debt crisis in Africa who owe China trillions of dollars. The Chinese Government denied they were empire-building by lending money they knew could never be repaid, using critical infrastructure as collateral for those loans.

This will only become a bigger issue as time goes on. Remember, China is a major investor in the UK's nuclear power plants and the US' oil pipelines and the farms in the mid-west that provide most of the countries food. (and that's on top of what the US government owe)

Read the story here:

It's been awhile since I updated this site and I apologize for that. I've been busy. Very very busy. I'm writing book 2 of my secret project and, I must admit, it's been kicking my ass on occasion. I've restarted three times and I've probably written about 400,000 words, most of which I've not kept. more often than not, I know it's just me being hard on myself but I want it to be the best it can be. However the end is in sight and so my mind is wandering to the next project (and the next).

I'm 30,000 words in Rane 2, A TIME TO FIGHT, so that will be the next one to tackle. He's off in the snowy mountains looking for revenge on the mage that messed up his life.

Then it's Jack Frey 3. CRY WAR

And then... it goes on. Words to write, worlds to conquer. What a great way to spend my days.

I'm also moving to Canada in the next couple of weeks and I'm so excited about that. My family have been there since the summer and I can't wait to be reunited with them.