“You are what you do”
Or as Aristotle so elegantly put it, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
I am a writer. In today’s multi-social society, where a job is a way to make a living, rather than a career being a way to ‘live your life’ it is a hard thing to accept that we are anything. People exist. Our social circle – friends, family and colleagues – become as much part of our identity as we recognise as being ourselves.
I love reading. I love entering the world created by another mind – drawing on their experiences and unscrambled words, which form to make an alternative reality – if only for a few days. I am inspired and all I want to do is share that experience with other readers. Novelist, John Green recently said that it is the reader that makes the story not the writer – the book is different for every reader. This is true. The same goes for people. If we take time to create ourselves, we can all have a strong identity, one which allows us to be who we are and embrace our social circles as part of that inner connection.
My Books –
Unwinding Time (October, 2018)
An accident. A discovery. The curiosity of a passionate young artist.
In James Stoodah’s mystery-fiction novel Unwinding Time, Kayleigh Halsey, crippled by anxiety, moves to the Lake District to escape the trauma of her past. An innocent question sees her investigating a mystery and exposing a secret more than a hundred years old.
The deeper she delves, the darker the secret becomes.
Can Kayleigh’s innocence and passion bring the mystery to life? Or will she realise that you can’t run away from a memory?
Unwinding Time is set in the North Lakes and takes on board various issues spanning many generations: anxiety, sexuality, dealing with mortality and the prospect of change. Underneath it is all is a fascinating mystery delving into the mindset of a painter and how they see the world around them.
A Parallel Trust (June, 2015)
Could you trust a stranger with your dreams?
What begins as an exciting challenge turns into a countdown to save a young girl’s life…
As seventeen-year old Aril Ousby, the son of a renowned astrophysicist, embarks on a geocache treasure hunt in Britain, a series of kidnappings takes place in the United States. How are these events connected?
Is Aril right to trust the enigmatic architect of the treasure hunt – or is he being led into an elaborate trap? Is the puzzle master motivated by altruism – or greed? And why has he chosen to involve Aril in his scheme?
Aril and his friend Unity are drawn into a mystery that leads them to look at the Earth from a new perspective and to address a fundamental question: can future generations avoid the mistakes their parents made?
Ring of Conscience (July, 2014)
‘A Deadly Web of Intrigue.’
Professor Jason Chadwick, co-developer of the World Wide Web and son of a man who revolutionised casino security in Las Vegas, is found dead in his Cornish mansion. Amy Pearce, his PA, is convinced that he was murdered. All she has to remember him by is his Ring of Conscience, with its ancient Melodema symbol.
Police detectives Thomas Riley and Lucy Bridges discover that Jason left his multi-million pound fortune to anyone who could solve a series of internet clues that explore mythology, ancient history and architectural mysteries. However, a criminal organisation that Jason’s father helped to convict years earlier is monitoring their investigation. Amy goes missing and Riley and Bridges find themselves under intense pressure to solve Jason’s puzzle. Can they
solve the final clues before the hunt turns into a blood-bath…?
‘An ingenious mystery. Well-paced and full of twists. You don’t need to be computer literate to understand the plot. Brilliantly executed conclusion.’ – U.K. Bookworm.†
Ring of Conscience is also an interactive novel.
The website in the book exists and is set up so that readers can follow the clues and try to solve the puzzles before the characters do, if they fancy a challenge!
(Revised cover from Paperback title)