Born in Scotland. Educated at Strathallan School. Took up mountaineering at age 16. Served appreticeship as a Painter & Decorator, 5 bloody years! White Stag to Queen's Pawn took three years to wri...view moreBorn in Scotland. Educated at Strathallan School. Took up mountaineering at age 16. Served appreticeship as a Painter & Decorator, 5 bloody years! White Stag to Queen's Pawn took three years to write after gestating in my imagination for about 40 years. I built the saga in my mind over those years without committing anything to paper. I was finally prompted at least to put pen to paper to 'see how it goes.' My writing time was restricted to evenings because of work, so I devoted myself to working three evenings a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday from about 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 or 10:00 with a quick break for something to eat.
I further fortified myself with bottles of Macallan so that it's not surprising that this very smooth malt is mentioned many times in the book. As this was my first book that I thought I might get published I tried to make every word count as 'padding' bores the reader, nevertheless the dialog stretched to about 670 pages.
Once I had the MS in what I considered a reasonable state I launched myself into the market place and tried, for another three years, both in the USA and the UK to find an agent or publisher. Suffice to say that after many wrong turns from agents who promised publication for money, and other scams I eventually gave up and used BookSurge, now CreateSpace to publish this book.
So from coming across the wreckage of a Lancaster Bomber in the Beinn Eighe corrie when I was a lithe 18 year old rock climber exploring Glen Torridon plus my experiences of stalking for Red Deer in the Scottish Glens, White Stag was born.
I believe the story line to be quite unusual, but believable, and I think like all the kind folks who have written glowing reviews about the book, it would make a first class movie. All you have to do now is buy the book and a decent bottle of malt Scotch, curl up beside a warming winter's fire and get reading!view less