Jeff asked James Islington:

I'm fascinated by the idea that you seem to have just decided to become an author one day because you were inspired by Brandon and Patrick. Could you provide us with a bit of a background/biography? How did you find the time to do it? Did you have a writing background before starting your first novel or did you just have a natural gift for telling an amazing story?

James Islington Sure! It wasn’t *quite* as abrupt as that – I absolutely loved creative writing as a teen, and the ambition to write a novel ‘one day’ was always there. Most of my twenties, though, was spent running a startup with a friend of mine. It was pretty successful and a major learning experience, but also an insane amount of work and stress. I barely had time to read fiction, let alone write anything.

So when I finally got around to discovering Brandon’s and Patrick’s books, it wasn’t that they necessarily created my first ‘I want to be an author’ moment – I think everyone who enjoys writing has a little bit of that in them already anyway. It was more that they rekindled my *enthusiasm* for the idea, which to me is actually a much harder thing to inspire. Those books really got me excited about the genre again, and that in turn motivated me to give my own story a go.

In terms of finding the time, when I turned thirty I basically decided to scale back my involvement in the business so that it became a not-quite-full-time endeavour - less money, of course, but it allowed me both the opportunity and head space to write while still earning a paycheck. I'd already been working from home and on my own schedule for years, so self-discipline wasn't really an issue. From there it was just a case of being diligent about getting something down on the page every day. It took a couple of years and a fair amount of patience - a lot of drafts and a lot of edits based on feedback, especially early on - but eventually 'Shadow' got to the point where I was comfortable releasing it.

I think that about sums it up. Cheers for the question!

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