The first day I turned up in Nottingham I was supposed to be heading to Nottingham Trent University halls in Sherwood called Meridian Court, but the map I had was decades out of date, and all the notes I'd made were barely legible, so obviously I got a little lost. Lost in Nottingham After driving round for hours in what later turned out to be Beeston and then Arnold, I found myself in the city centre at a set of Halls called Norton Court. Figuring one halls would be much the same as any other I walked into reception and asked if I could stay there instead. The receptionist looked at me like I was crazy, gave me a lecture about 'going through the proper channels' and politely asked me to leave. Two hours later I arrived at Meridian Court and met my first flat mate who kindly leant me some blu-tac, and then asked for it back a few days later. That's how my five years of adventures in Nottingham began. The first three of those were undergrad years - out most of the time finding myself in crazy situation after crazy situation. Since I never got drunk; I remembered each night perfectly and it dawned on me that a lot of the stuff that had happened made interesting tales. In the mean time I'd also managed to get a few extra curricular activities on the CV and one of them was writing for the university paper, Platform. Random Diary project I approached the editor and pitched an idea for a series about a university student who finds himself in a whole range of ridiculous situations. She liked the idea and so I started to write 'Random Diary'. My reading to that point consisted of Tom Sharpe, Ben Elton and Marian Keyes (yes – and I like her books – laugh it up) and Asterix books. The combination made Random Diary erratic but entertaining; people said they liked it, which got me thinking.
 | | At work |
I graduated with a 2.1 in Media and Psychology, a load more adventures and a sabbatical job as editor of Platform. I worked for a year and learnt a lot more about Nottingham which added more and more to my story collection. Naturally the idea of turning those little bits I'd written for the paper into a book also grew. I knew I had enough material for volumes - but a) Would anyone be interested? and b) What did I know about writing books? 4000 words a week So I enrolled on the writing MA at Trent to learn the craft of composition. At the start of the first lesson, the award winning author Graham Joyce (no relation to James) said words to the effect of "One person every year from this course has been published, and it hasn't been the one who can write the best - it's been the one who works hardest. So we're expecting to you to do at least 3000 words of work a week." He ignored the classes gasps and continued "On top of that when you come in here, expect for your work to be savagely critiqued, and I warn you now, we have had people leave this class in tears. Do not take it personally, it's the best way to improve." He then ordered us to do a hundred one handed press ups and insisted we call him drill sergeant for the rest of term (but no one else in the class remembers that bit, probably because it never happened.) I listened though and tried to do four thousand words a week, being an insomniac helped. I wrote as much as I could and especially when I didn't 'feel' like it. I just had to get into the writing habit. I worked on a new book and continued with the 'Random Diary' project. Every fortnight I took my work in to class, I got maybe one or two compliments about my piece before it got ripped to shreds. Again and again it happened, but I made copious notes from the criticisms (which were all valid) then went back to the drawing board and rewrote til my computer crashed. It's worth mentioning here the two phrases that have stuck with me more than anything from the MA: "writers write" and “and the art of writing is in rewriting." Towards the end of term after countless drafts and dozens of peer critiques I approached one of the other tutors, best selling author David Belbin, with something now called 'Fresher Hours'. Shark infested waters
 | | The first novel |
"I'll take a look, he said "but if it's crap – I'm going to tell you it's crap." I handed over the manuscript and waited. An email came back saying it wasn't crap, was actually funny and, as he put it, refreshingly silly. He looked over my synopsis and said it might be ready to send out to the shark infested waters of agents and publishers. He kindly and calmly forewarned me about demoralising rejections – apparently even the first 'Harry Potter' was rejected some 15 times before it was accepted. I sent 'Frehser' off to big publishers who mostly sent back 'they only accepted stuff through agents'. I wrote to agents who mostly sent back 'they didn't cater for young adult fiction' and so I wrote to mid sized publishers who mostly sent back other things amounting to 'no'. Occasionally there would be a handwritten note saying, 'really enjoyed it but it's too old for our readers'. Such notes were strangely comforting. I felt it meant someone had actually read it. Buoyed by this, I just continued sending it out. Eventually I chanced across a production company in Nottingham called Stone Soup and pitched it there. They liked it and said they would publish it and told me how much I would get for the endeavour. I didn't care, I was so elated that I'd heard the words the man from Del Monte was so famed for that I would've been happy with a chocolate bar… and so it started. In print They got the ball rolling through a publishing service called Exposure publishing and eventually, a whole three years after I first had the idea, a proof copy of 'Fresher' was sent to me. Needless to say I was chuffed. Now it's available in stores and on line and I wait excitedly to see what readers and press have to say about my little book of student related misadventures. Though truth be told, whatever's written and said of it - good or bad – I'm just glad I managed to capture so many memories of my student days in Nottingham in a way that reminds other people of theirs. To read an extract from 'Fresher'... | 
