James Apps

I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and was hooked. The result was the Zradian Chronicles trilogy featured on my website www.catwriter.uk which may not be as crazy as Douglas Adams’ book but ate least I had fun writing it.

I like writing sci-fi comedy and sci-fi fantasy as much as I like writing darker tales such as the Star of Destiny series, or the thriller Jake’s Progress which is currently in a second edition after an author review - I rewrote some of it to locate the action in Sheerness, my local town - and stories of the ordinary bloke as well as poetry.

I am an ordinary bloke and Identify with the Whitebait character in A Good Kiwi Bloke.

I was born in Chatham in the county of Kent a long time ago living moost of the time in and around Walderslade and Bluebell Hill. At school I liked writing what we knew as “compositions” and always did well in English exams. I served an apprenticeship as a Fitter and Turner in the Chatham Naval Dockyard.

In 1971 my wife and I emigrated to New Zealand where I bummed around practicing my trade - wife Carol, plied her skills as a graphic designer for agencies and a Collins Publishers. In 1975 I worked in Australia for three years and returned to NZ to again bum around working in the trade.

In 1987, divorced and suffering from RSI and frozen shoulders I had to stop work. Accident Compensation eventually helped me recover in part but I had passed my trade use by date, and unable to revert to my trade I took up writing poems and short stories.

Yes, I enrolled in a creative writing course which helped keep me sane.

I did volunteer work for the Auckland Trades Union Centre, and the Catholic Seminary at Takapuna until the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) decided that I was ready for full time work. The jobs offered were crummy, repetetive tasks with no prospects so I took some good advice and in 1995 I enrolled at Auckland University.I emerged five years with an MA, a wealth of experience, having met friends on campus, taken part in Summer Shakespeare, written reviews for the student magazine on the art galleries, theatre and books.

I like cats and most of my life I have had one or contact with them. I 1985 I met up with Toots, a lovely semi-feral cat who became my familiar. When she passed away with kidney failure my flatmate of the time gave me a black kitten as a Christmas present whom I names Sophie, and she stayed with me for seventeen and a half years. I have Mixie now but I still miss Sophie.

Sophie’s eyes are those used on covers of The Cat People of Angel City books.

Sophie and returned to the UK in 2000, she to stay in quarantine for a while and me to look for work. I became a Teaching Assistant at a local school, collected the cat, and joined a local writer’s group to start writing and reading.

I am now an active member of the Sheppey Writer’s Group which is active in the community running our own publishing house that produces our books and our associates including a history volume on behalf of the Sheppey Little Theatre, and books by our local member of parliament.

I like cats; have a 2nd Dan in Aikido, used to ride motorcycles, love walking for pleasure and visiting stately homes and gardens, but mostly I like cats. Music tastes range from catchy advertising jingles, country and western, trad jazz, reggae, a selection of pop, classical music, shows and chorale music.