ANT RICHARDS

Just a word or two...

 

... or maybe more

 

Now that I've finally grabbed your attention, I guess you have no choice but to read on.

          First though, I'd like to thank you for stumbling upon this page.

          It has taken months of ingenious work and experimenting, with its fair share of trial and error, while waiting for the right moment to launch. But here we are and I really hope you find the site interesting, informative and fun. And while we're at it, hopefully, you will find a good reason to check out my works.

          But first things first. Let's start by introducing myself.

          Ok, here goes, I am Ant Richards. A writer. Not yet famous, but working on it.

          Right, that went well. Now, the hard bit; let's talk about me.

          Now, you see, I have to be honest and make a little confession. For many years, I must have been probably one of the world’s greatest procrastinators. As always, many factors have contributed to my abandoning projects or ideas either at its inception or halfway through them, some (well most) of my own doing, few others due to circumstances beyond my control. Many of them however, I hate to admit, was waning of enthusiasm only to ultimately waste time regretting.

          Writing was no different.

          My first attempt at story writing, probably in my late teens, was a shipwreck adventure set in the XIX century; a very adventurous storyline, which I ended up making too complex for its own good and probably for my own abilities.

          Years later, came various literary attempts that eventually turned too personal, so that couldn't work either. I saw no need to share these embarrassing exploits, and being in my mid to late twenties, I didn't consider myself famous or old enough to write an autobiography; that is best left to wannabe celebrities who already publish world exclusives by the time they turn twenty one.

          Life however went its usual course and in the meantime, I trained and worked as a recording engineer, fell in love, procrastinated here and there, did not become a famous musician or a renown sound engineer for that case, married, moved countries, eventually ending up in the world of travel, attracted of course, by the glitzy tales of jetting away to far flung places at the fraction of what your average mortal would pay. I sadly realized, after landing in the industry, that I had arrived at the tail end of its glamorous years.

          The Travel Agent as such had already began a slow, cruel, and tortuous death, in great measure aided with the advent of internet. The events of 9/11 and its aftermath, hardly helped, adding a few more nails to its coffin.

          By the way, one very crucial thing I should mention; timing has never been one of my greatest assets.

          Oh yes, the internet, that wretched tool did not make thing any easier. It transformed the typical and common Joe and Jane into so-called expert online travel agents turning the once glamorous travel industry into a succession of search engines and frustrating call centres based in unpronounceable countries.

          But let’s not digress any further. A few years back, I started writing and sharing my travel experiences with my close friends via email – yes, the offspring of that wretched, evil Internet. I would write a Travel Chronicle with my unique journey experience and a bit of history of the places I visited, with the usual touch of humour and cheek in tongue style, which apparently amused my readers. I got great feedback. I continued and every time I travelled, it was demanded by my closest and dearest, that I should write a review.

          With time, I got more sophisticated, thanks to the internet of course, which, after all is not such a bad thing, now that I think of it. I joined a couple of blog-type sites and started targeting a wider audience, also with the aid of Facebook and so on. Of course, not enough to kiss my 9 to 5 goodbye, but it did help polish my writing skills.

          Three years ago, I made my first serious attempt at writing, an elaborate and more sophisticated one even. Again, I found myself carrying a bit of my own life into those pages. That only got as far as thirty A4 size pages. My next bold attempt got a bit further but stopped shy of 34 pages.

          Then one night, and this is no pun, I had a dream.

           Yes, one night, like any other night, I was sleeping, dreaming my own business, as one does, and I had this dream. Mr Wong came up to me while I was standing in a queue, and that was the beginning of a great storyline. Fortunately, I woke up as one normally does and did not suffer the tribulations and predicaments our poor Jack Parsons, the main character of 'In Your Dreams' will go through.

 

 

 

Ant Richards