David Andrews's Blog: Log of David Andrews - Wordsmith
November 13, 2013
A Sense of Arrival
Sixteen years ago I stopped being an engineer and became a writer; a big step after a working lifetime at sea.
To learn my new craft I wrote romance and my first publisher insisted on a female pseudonym so I took my wife's middle and maiden names and became Amy Gallow.
Amy won two national competitions here in Australia and published nineteen stories before I deemed myself competent to write as David Andrews and attempt the stories that interested me.
My first book was a science fantasy called "The First Born". This was followed by a second book in the same series called "The Alliance". Both books were triggered by the obituary of a 107 year-old veteran of WWI.
Emboldened by their reception, I then turned to some of the stories I had written at sea. They had to be rewritten completely, but the 1975 story "Coasting" was my first sea story set in the Australian coastal shipping. This was followed by "The Sapphire Sea" first written in 1982 while I sailed as Chief Engineer on the supply boats of the offshore oil industry in the Timor Sea.
I have signed a contract for a historical sea story set on a voyage from London to Jamaica during the short peace that followed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802
My current work in progress is about the losses of aging bulk carriers off the coast of southern Africa that triggered the 1980s "Ships of Shame" campaign by Australian unionists.
To learn my new craft I wrote romance and my first publisher insisted on a female pseudonym so I took my wife's middle and maiden names and became Amy Gallow.
Amy won two national competitions here in Australia and published nineteen stories before I deemed myself competent to write as David Andrews and attempt the stories that interested me.
My first book was a science fantasy called "The First Born". This was followed by a second book in the same series called "The Alliance". Both books were triggered by the obituary of a 107 year-old veteran of WWI.
Emboldened by their reception, I then turned to some of the stories I had written at sea. They had to be rewritten completely, but the 1975 story "Coasting" was my first sea story set in the Australian coastal shipping. This was followed by "The Sapphire Sea" first written in 1982 while I sailed as Chief Engineer on the supply boats of the offshore oil industry in the Timor Sea.
I have signed a contract for a historical sea story set on a voyage from London to Jamaica during the short peace that followed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802
My current work in progress is about the losses of aging bulk carriers off the coast of southern Africa that triggered the 1980s "Ships of Shame" campaign by Australian unionists.
Log of David Andrews - Wordsmith
The observations and events of a journey from engineer to author.
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