I started writing George and the Dragon back in the nineteen-eighties. I got stuck, put it aside, transferred it from 5.25" floppies to 3.5" floppies to Winchester drives to IDE drives, from computer to computer and told myself I would have the time to finish it sometime.

Then I saw a TV programme about Kindle Self Publishing two months ago and realised that what had held me back was not the writing but the thought of all the grief of finding an agent, printing manuscripts, sending them out, getting endless rejection slips and bruises to the ego.

I went back to where I was stuck and had a revelation - I was writing fiction and I could just invent something to get out of the blind alley. Suddenly, I was writing every day. I would go for walks and think about where the story was going to go next, start writing to that plan and almost immediately find the story going off in another direction.

I have now finished it and am getting friends to read it for feedback before I hit the go button on Amazon.