(Erm, this is awkward… I’ve really gotta hang it all out there?)
In short, I’m an ex investment banker, ex small business owner, and now an author.
Believe it or not, some interesting, imaginative, passionate – even compassionate – people work in the banking industry (well, okay not that many… okay, okay they’re a minority). The industry doesn’t encourage it though and the higher the tree you climb (pile of bodies, perhaps?) the harder it is to avoid compromising who you are. It was fun though – for a while – and challenging. And lucrative. Five years in Sydney, another five in Tokyo, by which time it became… narrow. Grey. Boring really. And I wasn’t sure I liked who I was becoming. So I took a deep breath and leapt.
Floated around back in Sydney for a while. Got married, had two beautiful, wonderful, amazing, awesome kids. Did ‘business continuity’ plans for a couple of merchant banks (seriously slash-your-wrists boring). Consulted to a bank owned, tax effective film financing operation and faced the ‘get in properly or get out’ question and decided I definitely didn’t want back into banking full time.
Set up an internet presence provider with a mate. We designed, built and hosted search engine optimised websites, particularly for hotels and other hospitality businesses. It’s an easy business to stay busy in, not so easy to be profitable though, and incredibly fast moving. After about half a decade, we decided we had to completely change our business model which meant getting smaller (so it would be even harder to make a buck) or much bigger, which would require a chunk of risk capital… with the emphasis on risk. So we bailed, sold it (for get-out-of-jail type money as opposed to sip-cocktails-for-the-rest-of-your-life type money, unfortunately). Got unmarried, sadly, but we’ve managed to achieve a strong, supportive friendship within which to co-parent (it’s true!).
But.
All the while I read about science. And I read science fiction. I consumed New Scientist magazine religiously, devoured popular science books, wolfed down SF.
And then I started to play around with a book idea and much to my surprise, actually wrote a full draft. And then another draft. And then (after some feedback) another and another… you get the idea.
So here we are. My long-suffering readers reckon its worth a read. I’ve even had it professionally assessed and apparently it’s not complete rubbish. The real test of course is the market.
Will people find in interesting and engaging? Thought provoking, even? Worth a read?
I guess I’m about to find out.
