Ross Kitchen
Author of Fantasy Fiction
At school I enjoyed two things, reading and chemistry. I disliked English lessons and writing however.
Even back then, my head was full of stories. I would make them up whenever I wasn’t concentrating on something. At times they were nothing more than additions to whatever book I was reading.
Aphantasia, an inability to see images in your mind, probably helped with my ability to conjure up stories.
On leaving school, I wanted to work in a laboratory and started off as a Laboratory Assistant, in a dairy outside Swindon. At the time I was earning £5000, back in the early 1980s. After a year, I moved industries, and spent 15 years working in various laboratories, testing paints and resins. I came to dislike the constant mess and smells though.
Never be afraid to switch careers. I was forced into a change by redundancy and chose to work with databases, spreadsheets and reporting to management. Over the previous few years I had discovered computers and computing. Purchasing an Amstrad 256 of a colleague.
Over the next 15 years, I improved my writing skills and computing skills
Two things conspired to get me writing.
I had moved town, after a separation turned into an acrimonious divorce. My youngest daughter, eight at the time was missing me.
After retiring, Bernard Pearson, a close friend of Terry Pratchett, had written a book, based on nothing more than the phrase, ‘Everyone has a book in them’.
Dovetail by Bernard Pearson is well worth a read.
In 2019, just before Covid hit, I decided to start writing a fantasy novel, followed quickly by a children’s story for my daughter. At the same time I was busy writing down whatever ideas came to mind.
Since 2019 I have written numerous novels, all now self-published, outside of Amazon. I have also published several books for others.
As to fantasy authors, my favourite author has always been Mary (Andre) Norton, Terry Pratchett is a close second. Mary wrote under the pen name Andre, as Publishers didn’t think women were capable of writing science fiction in the 1950s and 60s.
