Hello, and welcome to the site, my name is Fred Watson. So far I have self published one book, a children's fantasy adventure 'Finding Rosy'. I am a father of three and a grandfather of four and I love to write. look around the site and you will find that I write about anything that interests me. So why not take that look around now and I hope you enjoy at least some of my work.
When I began this site all I had in mind was showcasing my book 'Finding Rosy', but then I was presented with all these blank pages and I just couldn't help myself, I just had to do something about them. So I dug out in some of the short pieces I had written and using them as a basis began some new pages. It has been and still is, a great exercise for me as it keeps me putting pen to paper and hopefully the feedback will help me improve my writing
Short Stories For Girls was the first, followed by Short Stories for boys, thenFor Younger Children this led on to Stories for Mums and for Dads. To date there are over 350 Free to read short stories / poems /articles / snippets of history and recipes on the pages, every one of them you can read online. I'll add more as I get the time.
NEW Book Showcase Finding Rosy, plus eBook and free books to read on line.
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The Real Robinson Crusoe, The True Story of Alexander Selkirk
A grandfather of four, Fred freely admits to being long in the tooth, but denies being around when the Romans invaded.
He is one of the many ordinary folk in this country that enjoy writing, and there are many. Each year something like 150,000 books are published, add to that the thousands that are written but never reach the publishing stage and the many thousands of writers that write purely for pleasure and you get some idea of just how many writers are out there.
Writers are not a breed apart, but come from all walks in life, men, women, boys and girls, young and old. Some seem to be born to it and have written all their lives, while others come to it later on. They come in different shapes and sizes and write for many reasons, strangely enough not all set out to be best selling authors.
Some are into genealogy and spend an inordinate amount of time in tracing their ancestors, and turn the information into a book for their family and relatives. Others research local history and produce books of interest to visitors and locals alike. Then there are the writers of DIY manuals that tell you how to do anything, from painting and decorating, to writing a best selling book.
There are many more, but possibly the biggest group are the novelists and short story writers, those who write, or aspire to write a novel or an anthology and see it in print. Not necessarily a best seller mind you, but simply a book that someone other than the author might read and enjoy. Fred counts himself as one of this group.
As a child, Fred like a lot of boys was more interested in woodwork and kicking a ball than in English and writing. Despite this lack of interest he developed a passion for reading, joined the library and read voraciously, and still does. He had many dreams, as young lads do.But as he grew older he met a girl, got married, had a family and his priorities changed.
Then three and a half years ago, he was forced to retire early and as someone who had always worked manually it was a blow.
But he couldn’t sit around doing nothing, what he needed was a hobby and it had to be something he could do from home. Maybe now was the time to try his hand at writing. He signed up for a computer course at the local library, did all the basics, got a second hand computer and began to write. Initially he wrote for himself, and then began to write stories for his grandchildren. The Kids loved them, but they were really bad.
Oh, how he wished he had taken more interest in English at school; what he needed was help, an apprenticeship in writing if you like, something he thought didn’t exist. But he was wrong; there were many dozens of courses out there, run by some excellent writers. Anyway he found a ten-week, creative writing course, run by the Open University, it was ideal as he could study and take the final exam at home. Later he took a play-writing course, again with the O. U.But preferred the creative writing.
Next came a local writers group, an friendly group of men and women from many walks of life drawn together by one thing, the love of, or the need to, put words onto paper.
He enjoyed the group, they encourage him to write regularly, read out his work, listen to what others had written and he gained a lot from the experience. Sadly the group closed, but one of the members, John, invited him to join another group of like-minded individuals; he is still a member of that group, still attends the weekly meetings and is still serving his apprenticeship.
So three and a half years later he published his first novel “Finding Rosy” and began to set up this website
Hello