In 1944, when I was born in Bath, England, my mother had already published four books for middle-grade girls. Writing under the pen name Jane Shaw she eventually produced over 40 books, noted for their humor, realistic characters, and great sense of place. (For a full account of her life and work, see Susan and Friends: The Jane Shaw Companion, edited by Alison Lindsay; see https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Friends-Jane-Shaw-Companion/dp/0952468069)
I read all her books, usually in the galley proof stage, and I have to admit that I rather took her witty storytelling and widely acclaimed writing skills very much for granted.
After my parents, along with me and my older sister, moved from England to South Africa, my mother started working in a specialized bookstore in the northern Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank, called The Children’s Bookshop. During school holidays I was allowed to sit in the stockroom and read any of the new books—as long as I washed my hands first! I always selected adventurous boyish stories set in some tumultuous historical era. So, I grew up around books and reading books, but without much of a literary focus on the great classics. They were for school and exams and struggling with characters with whom I felt no connection. If, however, I found a book set in the African veld, or medieval London, or crusading knights in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, I couldn’t put it down.
I went to a private boys school in Johannesburg (see my memoir of these school days entitled Lux, Vita, Caritas: Memories of Johannesburg Schooldays), and then to the University of the Witwatersrand where I majored in history and psychology, eventually going on to an Honors degree in psychology. From there I went to London to complete my PhD in psychology between 1966 and 1970.
My first academic job teaching clinical psychology was at the University of Hawai’i, where my daughter Kim was born, followed by appointment as professor and director of clinical training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (where I married my second wife and close professional colleague Professor Luanna Meyer–see www.luanameyer.com), and then to the University of Waikato and Massey University, both in New Zealand. During those academic years I wrote a great many articles, books, and book chapters. On retirement as professor emeritus at Massey and our return to Hawaii I decided the time had come to try my hand at something other than technical, scientific, nonfiction writing.
I enjoy writing. It comes easily to me. I’ve never had writers block or anxiety or lack of motivation. But I soon learned that fiction writing was very different from anything I’d done before. While still having much to learn, I focus now on a few simple principles: write about what you know; tell plausible stories about realistic but interesting people and try to emulate the witty style that my mother Jane Shaw, employed so well.