The broad idea of the book relates to a man who swapped a paperclip on e-bay, and after many more swaps he eventually got himself a house. In ‘Trading Vincent Crow’ this idea was taken to the extreme that Vince has to trade his entire life every 3 months until he gets to where he thinks he needs to be. It’s a fun concept to work with, as it allows the book to be very episodic, and the plot can jump from one very different situation in to the next bout of chaos, as Vince trades away his life for the next adventure.

Q: Which part of the book was the hardest to write?

There wasn’t a particularly hard part of the book to write. The challenge was more about finding the time to write it. I mainly try to make opportunities at the weekend to enjoy my creative writing, which means that normally I might only get a few pages finished each week. I see this as very positive as I’m always itching to get down the plots and situations that I’ve imagined over the course of the week and my enthusiasm remains high. As a result my writing is quite concise, which is a style I aspire to. However, it does mean it takes me a very long time to finish writing a book.

Q: Does your book have an underlying message that readers should know about?

There really is no underlying message whatsoever in “Trading Vincent Crow”. I strove hard to avoid any wayward opinions, controversial stances or questionable political views.  The aim is to allow the reader to escape into the humour with no other baggage dragging along.

Q: Do you remember when the writing bug hit?

I discovered my passion for creative writing whilst living in a small village in Cameroon in 1999. It was my first oversees posting and I was a lone volunteer managing the construction of a water supply project. There was no television, telephone, or indeed electricity for that matter. I had been writing a lot of letters home about my experiences and found that I really enjoyed putting pen to paper. As a result I decided to write a short story about the pop band that I had played in at university.  I wrote it on scraps of paper, and found myself cutting out paragraphs from different pages and sticking them to the sides of others with duct-tape. The resulting collage of scribbling needed instructions to navigate. After discovering the pleasures of this creative process I went on to write longer stories about my adventures in Cameroon, and the subsequent places I’ve worked in. Since then I’ve written a couple novels as well as a self-published series of children’s books about the environment.

Q: Besides books, what else do you write?  Do you write for publications?

I’ve written a number of guest-posts for blogs, which I really enjoyed writing. I find it can be quite a nice way to refine an anecdote into a more punchy narrative. The word limit of the blog forces you to get to the point quite quickly which can be quite a good control. It’s also a nice way to publish an anecdote which I would otherwise not have an outlet for.

Q: Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share?

I think if you’re doing anything creative you have to ensure it doesn’t become a burden. I once had an evening job playing piano in a wine-bar. The monotony became a real chore after a while, and impacted on my enjoyment of playing. I feel the same with writing, if I get to a point where I’m no longer enjoying what I’m creating it’s probably time to walk away for a while and come back later with some fresh inspiration.

Q:  Would you like to tell us about your home life?  Where you live?  Family?  Pets?

I am currently living in a rural province of Laos, which is quite a simple life, and notably it can be difficult to get hold of cheese.

Leonard the cat joined us about a year and a half ago, and immediately sorted out the household mouse problem, but then almost as quickly introduced the household snake problem. It seems if you’re an enthusiastic young cat it can be quite fun bring in small snakes to play with in the kitchen. Jill had read that having chickens can keep down the snakes in the garden, as eventually they peck at the eggs and any babies until the cycle is broken, so we got a couple of hens, with a view that we should get a few fresh eggs as well.

Sadly, the cockerel next door quickly learned about our snake reduction plan, as did two of my staff who thought I had developed a new interest in poultry farming and gave me six baby ducklings. Six months on and we have no fresh eggs, 14 chickens of various sizes, a number of ‘guest chickens’ and flock of ducks, all of which seem to need feeding extensively. There have also been some recent snake sightings in the garden.  So that’s where the home-life is up to at the moment…

Q: Where’s your favorite place to write at home? 

I am currently sitting in a cheap armchair with its two broken front legs screwed back on haphazardly, tapping at my laptop that’s perched on the corner of a coffee table. The standing fan is aimed equally between me and the computer as it is debatable which of us is most likely to overheat first at this point in the dry season. That being said, I seem to be able to get quite a lot written working like this.

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promoting your book?

I set up an author’s website to feature the book. As part of that I also had a podcast professionally recorded to narrate three excerpts from the book, read by actors who could capture the local dialect where the book is set. (www.dcjwardle.co.uk)

Q: Thank you so much for this interview.  Do you have any final words?

Please visit my website where you can hear the podcast featuring excerpts from the book. I think it provides a good taster for what to expect from the book, as well as giving as sense of the local dialects from where the book is set. www.dcjwardle.com