How I started and what inspired me

Hi everyone
Welcome to my first blog around Storm Force and writing.
My goal was to turn the page and keep it all exciting which was a fascinating and never ending process. I wasn't interested in sounding corny or melodramatic and this generated multiple rewrites. Some ideas only popped up a few months before submission.
In 2006, I became a self-employed tour operator. In 2010, during the depths of the Great Recession I had a random thought – could I translate my school success with adventure essays into a novel?
The late, great Wilbur Smith set me straight. He said to write about what you love. For me that’s the outdoors, the spark for which was lit by hiking trips with my father and a 1987 21 day Outward Bound Course.
During those three weeks they unapologetically stripped us down and turned us inside out. Physical/mental fitness and perseverance. Can you push yourselves, work as a team and go the distance? We did six three day schemes including two ‘iron man’ bush hikes up and over trackless, intimidating peaks and a three-day sea assignment. Half way through, heavy colds got us. Our instructor, a decent but hard-nosed type, told us to keep going and sweat it out and he sent us on five kilometre runs. We survived. The sea thing should have killed us. We were young bucks but we had no business completing that deal because our attitude sucked. We’d completed the second bush hike ahead of schedule and we expected a celebration sailing party but that depended on the wind Gods who, after the first day, didn’t play ball which meant using the oars. Well, we didn’t want a bar of such effort BUT, there being no rescue cavalry, we gradually pulled our weight and we did the last day – twenty kilometres - in twelve hours, a flattering result.

That course cost me seven kilos, cleared my head and prepared me for future life. I joined a hiking/alpine club and got busy with search and rescue, challenging hiking treks and alpine training. I enjoyed the mountains and the storms, the gales, the snow, the challenge of it all. In 1994 I hiked the Grand Canyon in July, top to bottom and back, in eight and a half hours.

I have drawn on these experiences. I also greatly admire the SAS, Navy Seals and other special forces whose efforts and sacrifices mean that I can live my life. Part of me regrets that I’ll never make their ranks but I can appreciate them and their feats and use my imagination.
I invite you to buy Storm Force and I hope you enjoy it to the hilt.
My next blog will outline some tips/pointers that I learned during this, my first foray.

See you.
Drew

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