Author Bio

Andy grew up in Nottingham England. In 1989 he moved with his wife Jane and two children to Queensland Australia where they now live in the Gold Coast hinterland with their three cats and two Dalmatian dogs.

The importance of tiger conservation was brought to Andy's conscience during the research phase of his first novel The Tiger Chase, and many questions, which not even the tiger experts could answer, arose, such as: how can we stand back and watch an important subspecies as the South China tiger become extinct? Why isn't more being done? And who cares anyway?

In his second book, The Last Tiger (due for publication soon) Andy has followed a similar theme, but chosen to target the children's market in a hope that he can get his message across to the most important people in this crazy world of ours: the next generation! This story is filled with magical adventures, and lots of fun, but it also incorporates other little known endangered species such as the English pine marten, and the Australian cassowary.

Andy dearly hopes that his contribution towards the preservation of critically endangered species' such as the South China tiger, will be to help lift public awareness towards the sad plight of these almost forgotten creatures through his novels: The Tiger Chase, and The Last Tiger, and his talks which he has conducted in the US and in Australia.

His third book will take Andy's writing in a completely different direction.
Murder inQuest (Introducing the Galactic Knights) is the first in a series
of Sci fi action adventure stories, and is also due for publication soon.

Apart from his duties as the President of the Gold Coast Writers' Association, Andy is writing a new novel called, New Moon, and busy working on a series of thirty minute TV scripts with a twist, entitled The Paradigm Shift. He has a number of completed feature length screenplays including an English black comedy set in Nottingham, England, and a murder mystery set in the US and Australia.

Resume

Novels

The Tiger Chase, published by the American Book Publishing Group, 2002.

The Last Tiger, currently being formatted for self-publication, 2007.

Murder inQuest (Introducing the Galactic Knights) new work, 2007.

The Tiger Chase revised edition, self-published in Australia , 2006.

New Moon, a work in progress.

Articles

‘The Ghost of Berridge School ’, The Nottingham Evening Post (Bygone Supplement) UK , 2000.

‘101 Tiger Facts’ used by the ExxonMobil Foundation as part of their conservation awareness training programme, 2001.

‘The South China Tiger’, published on various websites.

‘Fools Medicine’, published on various websites.

Monthly article published in the Gold Coast Writers’ Association e-Writeabout magazine 2005 - 2007.

Scripts

Working Girl, short listed for the Bryan Brown TV series Two Twisted, 2005.

New Moon, murder mystery, movie length, 2005 unpublished.

Kipper Season, drama, movie length 2005 unpublished.

The Paradigm Shift, a collection of ten, thirty-minute stories with a twist, for television, 2006.

Events

The Tiger Chase book launch at the San Diego Library USA , 2004.

The Tiger Chase US book tour of Southern California and Las Vegas , 2004.

The Tiger Chase book tour of South-East Queensland ; including: libraries, writers’ groups and the Runaway Bay View Club, 2004 - 2005.

Andy gives regular talks at libraries and writers’ groups.

Presentation of prizes for the children’s writing competition at the Lindisfarne Celebration of Literature, 2006.

Achievements

Elected president of the Gold Coast Writers’ Association (GCWA) in 2005 – 2006; re-elected 2006 – 2007.

Co-created, organised and exhibited in the first annual Paint ’n Prose art exhibition, a joint exhibition and competition of the GCWA and the Royal Queensland Arts Society, 2006. Due to the exhibition’s success, preparations are underway for another one to be held later this year, again with myself at the helm.

Introduced and coordinated the free Editing and Appraisal scheme for members of the GCWA. Since May, 2006, a number of quality manuscripts have been selected and professionally edited; all works not of the required standard receive written appraisals, authors are then encouraged to resubmit after reworking their texts.

Introduced Members’ Time at the GCWA monthly meetings when members are encouraged to read excerpts of their latest work or their winning entries from competitions thereby gaining experience in speaking before a large group, 2005.