The whole journey began, a long time ago, with the purchase of a new laptop. Sitting there alone in a hotel room, during a business trip, Coinneach started the word processor (WordPerfect in those days) and typed 'once upon a time there were three bears…'
From that point on, several well known fairy tales were given the politically correct treatment. ‘Tales Wagging’ was the eventual result.
"While I confess to having hated the creative writing component of high school English classes,"Coinneach admitted, "mostly because the muse failed to appear on cue, I'd always felt that I had some ability to write effectively."
"Maybe I wasn't courting the muse properly in those early days," he went on.
It all started at college when he became engrossed in the writings of the late Isaac Asimov, but it was years before he began to write for himself.>/span>
"During my impressionable years my hopes of discovering the secrets of the universe in science fiction writings were ill founded, I realised later, since all that I could ever find was the product of the combined imaginations of those writing."
It's easy to see that Science fiction is one of Coinneach's great passions. A new perspective gradually became apparent.
"It took me years to realise that I could assemble all of my thoughts on what is, what could be, and what might be out there, into my own version of the universe and write about it convincingly," said Coinneach recently.
“Some of Coinneach’s General Fiction is set in alternative situations…”
‘Beyond Kahn's Ladder,’ for example, takes place where no one really wants to be; that is, in the desolate landscape of the post World War Three future.
"The War-to-End-Wars is a label that has been applied to a previous conflict," Coinneach commented, "but WW3 will win the contest hands down."
Researching Kahn's Ladder really reinforced my hope that it will never happen."
‘Smoke and Mirrors,’ on the other hand, is set in a normal urban environment.
"This is my first venture into crime," said Coinneach "after years and years spent enjoying crime novels, I finally had the inspiration to try writing one of my own."
‘Hide Under the Bed Jimmy’ might be confronting for some readers…
It concerns the life and times of a small family during World War Two. Set in Scotland, mostly during 1941, the terror of aerial bombardment affected all of their futures.
"I realise that this book might prove challenging to the casual reader on two separate counts," Coinneach explained, "firstly due to the subject matter and, secondly, because I've broken one of the golden rules of literature by writing in the argot of the location!"
Following-on from his debut at the end of 'Hide Under the Bed Jimmy', this work 'Children Don't Have Tunnel Vision', covers Coinneach's early years between birth and the end of Primary School.
"Early experiences and lessons learnt form the basis on which people live their lives. Behaviours absorbed while very young tend to remain quietly in the background all through life," said Coinneach, "with the guiding influences of family and friends making a significant contribution to the developing psyche!."
"To make it easier on the reader," Coinneach added, "I've written this work in everyday English!"
‘I've Just Been Thinking’ (IJBT) covers a wide range of topics; consisting of a long series of short stories which cover ideas and concerns from Coinneach's past and present.
Most readers are bound to find something of interest…
"After publishing Volume 1, I realised that the next volume might take a little while to complete," Coinneach explained, "firstly due to the wide range of subject matter and, secondly, because I've been spending a great deal of my time writing on longer projects!"
