Anyone who visits this spanking new site will see pretty quickly that this isn’t the only place I share my wondrously deep and insightful reflections on life (or my unintelligible gobbledygook). You’ll also notice that there is a link to Twitter at the top of the page, as well as a little live feed on the right.

Ah, Twitter. What a wonderful thing it is. Full of shining wit and verbal brilliance. Well, it can be some of the time. It can also be full of “buy my book, view my blog, pay attention to me!” And I have to admit, I’m as guilty of that as the next desperately insecure author. But I do try to make sure my Twitter feed is a bit more interesting than that. Which is why I’ve come up with a brand new, exciting and innovative concept:

Champagne Twitter!

This blogging business is wonderful isn’t it. You readers get to know so much about me and about my life. It’s almost like we’ve become best friends.

What was that you said? You don’t actually know much about me? And here I was, thinking that I was sharing so much about myself for you all. Well, I’m going to have to fix that situation write away. So now, without delay, here are five really interesting things about me:

Some days, something happens to you that is especially satisfying. Today is definitely one of those days.

Almost 20 years ago, I had an idea for a story. A story about a detective on a case. A hard-boiled sort of story, full of wisecracks and femme-fatales and all the other good stuff a hard-boiled story should have. But it wasn’t going to be just any kind of hard-boiled detective story. It was also going to be a completely daggy hard-boiled detective story, unashamed to find its own way and poke a bit of fun at some of the hoary old hard-boiled cliches.

Almost 20 years ago seems like an awfully long time ago. It also seems like an awfully long time to spend writing a book, especially a very silly one. And I have to admit I haven’t actually spend all of those 20 years on writing this book. In fact, I wrote a first draft fairly quickly and then put it away for a very long time. Almost almost 20 years.

Welcome to my new website.

An especially big welcome if this is the first time you’ve come to check out my world of dagginess.

An especially big welcome if you’ve been a regular visitor in the past.

Basically, an especially big welcome to everybody.

So what’s new? Not much really. It’s still the same old me. Same old strange, rambling posts about nothing in particular. Same old blatant disregard for anything that might be vaguely current or in fashion. Same old light-hearted, “don’t take things too seriously” sort of tone. In short, the same old dagginess you’ve come to expect.

I love eating out. I love everything about the experience. Walking into a restaurant and taking in the smells of freshly cooked food, Perusing the menu to see the choices on offer. Waiting expectantly for my food to arrive. And taking that first mouthful from a steaming hot plate. Mmmm. My mouth is watering, just thinking about it.

What sorts of restaurants do I like best? All sorts of restaurants. I love Italian restaurants and Thai restaurants and Indian restaurants. I love seafood restaurants and even vegetarian restaurants. I like restaurants where the food is rich and spicy, and I also like restaurants where the food is simple and homespun.