Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
A devoted family man I have finally arrived at writing stories and publishing books after decades of being distracted by life. Thanks to ‘lockdown’ I have been able to immerse myself inside my own imagination and with the encouragement of friends and family found the courage to take my work public.
I have a young adult dark fantasy novel in progress – The Earthquake House – and have taken to developing a number of short Children’s stories. Initially read and published for free in Video Format on the newly created Agathos Daimon Animated Storyteller Channel on YouTube.
There are three children’s stories so far with a fourth in development. Both ‘The Saga of the Spider’ and ‘Bartholomew & the Golden Cup’ will follow later this year as Kindle and Paperback options.
On occasion I write some adult fiction too. ‘Scoop’ is the first in an anthology of short stories and has already been uploaded to YouTube as a free animated ‘audio book’ under the Agathos Daimon banner.
I live happily with my wife, Annie, and our wee ‘westie’ (West Highland Terrier), Harris, in a small rural town in the wilds of the Scottish Borders
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The Pigs Trotters’ was inspired by feedback from the child of a friend on my first animated story, The Saga of the Spider.
I had already started on Bartholomew and the Golden Cup, as my wife had requested a story about a bumblebee, so The Pigs Trotters was delayed by a about three weeks.
I wrote it more as an experiment at first in order to develop the animated storytelling video on my YouTube Channel. It quickly became a firm favourite and demonstrates how each successive story has developed from the one before.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I always hand-write everything first and end up re-working the piece at least seven times before I arrive at a version I’m happy to convert to digital format.
I also use the reading of any piece as part of a video version for upload as an opportunity to re-edit. It is amazing how often you can change a piece of work once you have read it out loud for recording purposes!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve always been a massive fan of fantasy fiction and devour books in that genre at an epic pace. One of the first books to inspire me as a teenager was The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. Naturally I went on to TLOTR, before finding my way to Ursula K le Guin, and many others too numerous to list.
Before all of these though I was a child of Enid Blyton, friend to Peter Rabbit and of course Winnie the Pooh!
What are you working on now?
I have several projects on the go.
The Earthquake House is ongoing and forms the first in a series referred to as ‘The Dragonara Sequence’ (Working Title).
A fourth Children’s story entitled ‘Pops, Nona, Harris and the Hedgehog’ is presently in development and likely to be the next published in multiple formats.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have yet to discover it. In the meantime I use YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and (oddly perhaps) LinkedIn.
Open to suggestions though…
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep the faith, develop a thick skin and persevere. Above all, be true to yourself and your writing passions.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep the faith, develop a thick skin and persevere. Above all, be true to yourself and your writing passions. – It rang a chord with me when I heard it after all the ‘obstacles’ and ‘negativity’ of the previous years that I had allowed to distract me from what makes me genuinely happy. It’s all too easy to ‘give in’ or be ‘overwhelmed’ so to anyone who really wants to write this is amongst the best advice I’ve heard and would pass on.
What are you reading now?
I made a resolution at the beginning of 2020 to take my reading matter into broader genre’s – I think it would help evolve my writing.
I have just finished reading ‘The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared’ and started reading an Agatha Christie (Mary Westmacott) – The Giants Bread.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Beyond this I have several projects (thrillers) listed for the adult market based on my working experiences within the Hospitality Sector and Business Consultancy with the Third Sector.
What is your favorite book of all time?
I’ll always be devoted to J. R. R. Tolkien so it would have to be The Lord of the Rings. I don’t make the choice lightly though as there are so many I could cite and who knows, maybe I haven’t read it yet!
Author Websites and Profiles
Andrew Leaver Website
Andrew Leaver Amazon Profile
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