Jools G King bio Part 1 – Writing’s A Long Game (You’re Telling Me!)
Hi, here’s a little Jools G King bio for you. I’m a horror writer, purveyor of nightmares, deep dread, existential angst (alright, that’s enough melodrama – Editor). I’ve been writing since I was 23, but I took a break for about 20 years in my early thirties. The reason: my writing was affecting my mental health.
I was also running out of things to write about. This can be a problem when you’re holding a full-time job during the day and writing during the evening. You’re not experiencing the full tapestry of life. The old ideas pump freezes up, and depression doesn’t help that either.
Whatever your dreams, whatever your ambitions, you should never jeopardise your mental health for the sake of them. So I went out into the world for a while (well, Norwich, at least). I partied and met actual real people). A few of these became the inspiration for characters in my stories. I may have briefly dated Morella White.
Jools G King Bio Part 1 – First Writing Phase (Round 1) Ding Ding
During my first writing phase, I wrote three horror novels, published a couple of short stories and was signed up by two literary agencies. Despite this, depressingly (see above) my novels remained unpublished.
The novels I had written thus far were in order, Bodyfreeze, Spiderella, and Better Off Dead. Only Bodyfreeze had drawn agent interest. But taking a look at it again, I realised it simply wasn’t good enough for publication.
All three of these novels BTW were stored in the cupboard under my stairs among the household clutter usually reserved for these spaces. They existed only in paper form, meaning if the house burned down these opuses (LOL) would be lost.
Forever, ha ha.
Bodyfreeze – Coming Out Of The Deep Freeze
It wasn’t lost on me that during the past twenty years my twice-agented and unpublished novel, Bodyfreeze, had lay in cold storage (no heating under the stairs). It was all on paper (PCs were too expensive for a CAD draughtsman back then). Would the ink have faded from the paper by now? I had no idea, but I should find out soon. The novels under the stairs became a new source of anxiety.
Fortunately, it turned out the ink hadn’t faded. But reading Bodyfreeze again, I quickly realised it wasn’t publishable in its current 80,000 word form. I immediately discarded the last 60,000 words (except for a select few short passages). I then added 40,000 new words to the end, creating a shorter, leaner scifi horror novel.
Later, I hope to do similar for Spiderella. As for Better Off Dead, my third novel proved I really needed to get a life. Better Off Dead remains Better Off Unpublished (although maybe there’s a short story there somewhere).
Jools G King Bio Part 2 – Second Writing Phase (Round 2) Ding Ding
I resumed writing in my early fifties. There were times I had sat down in my forties and tried to write again, but the desire just never came. I don’t believe you should attempt to write long fiction without that burning itch or parching thirst, that overwhelming desire to set your story down. If there’s really anything you’d rather be doing, my advice is that you should go do that. During this barren writing period, I did ghostwrite several children’s stories, which were available at the time on Amazon.
I always felt truer to myself while writing than with anything else.
Once I did pick up the pen again, it wasn’t to write fiction, oddly. Instead, I provided website content for a few years. I wrote about subjects as diverse as signage, refrigerated vans and quantum mechanics. From this I earned peanuts, but I did become a better writer. I learned a lot about writing in general from blogging.
For a while, I had considered dipping my toes into the new indie publishing revolution, but deemed it too competitive. Once I felt brave enough to attempt another novel, I didn’t just want to go back to one I’d already written. I wanted to write something fresh.
That was how my dystopian creature feature Ratstrike came about. Well that, and Brexit (go figure). While Ratstrike was in editing, I started another, an occult horror novella titled Raven Hill. My desire to write long fiction had been reawakened. Bodyfreeze would become my third novel.
My second novel writing period had begun. A new era. This time, rightly or wrongly, I’d decided I would not pursue the trad publishing route.
I was about to become an indie author.
