Tell us about yourself.:
Born in the late fifties, went to school in Derby England, mainly midstream education. It was a lack of concentration that made me lose my place at the top grammar school, the exams went disastrously wrong. It was never a good thing asking me to concentrate, my mind would always be somewhere else, thinking all the time about other things. Being at school was a secondary chore in place of a primary, although I was always marked good for turning in every day. I had little absences from school but juggled time between school and play. I was a bit arty and crafts at school was a subject I enjoyed, my teacher more or less begged me to go to art school as he said I was his best student in years but the lure of a city and guilds apprenticeship in plumbing and heating with wages outweighed the other of five years at art school with no incentive beyond that.
Nature was what I enjoyed when I was younger and all the books I read would have been linked to birds or animals. My early days would be spent walking in the countryside with my friends to see nature thriving around us. I still enjoy going out and getting as close to nature as I can.
I was busy after my apprenticeship finished whilst I tried to start my own business as a self-employed plumber installing central heating systems. I eventually moved into building work, a fairly natural progression into property and creating a portfolio of property rentals.
I started to write manuscripts on different subjects without publishing any of the unfinished work due to my workload that I had created, and time was not a luxury I could afford. I had not read novels as I was more interested in nature and I was fascinated by nature and its diversity. I would watch programs on animals, the ocean and its inhabitants, birds of all kinds from the biggest hawks and vultures down to the smallest hummingbirds. Reptiles were always something that I enjoyed reading about and the environments they lived in.
I spent the last thirty years building new houses and large care homes for the elderly and running the day-to-day administration of caring for the elderly residents. I started writing books again with a view to publishing them after the pandemic (Covid), it had given me a new lease of life to start writing again but this time not to just write a manuscript but to write it and publish it.
I seem to have been born with a gift of a creative mind and photographic memory, the books I write just seem to flow out my head as I am writing them. I seem to be able to write in any genre including fiction of course. I consider myself lucky as I have never read any fiction books. I find I do not affiliate my writing with any other author and do not mimic the style of any. I do my best to make a book exciting to read and entertaining for the reader.
I have two books currently in the worldwide market True Love Unlimited and True Love Unlimited The Conclusion. The latest book True Love Unlimited The Conclusion has won the gold prize for its genre Romance, Action, Thriller and I thank Chick Lit Café for giving me the first prize for my book.
I have just completed my new sci-fi book The Sixth Dimension Defined and will be published. We aim to release the new book for sale early July 2024.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?:
I grew up in Derby England, I was popular at school and was a good looking lad with a nice personality so experienced romance at an early age.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No I don't.

What authors have influenced you?
I grew up in Derby England, I was popular at school and was a good looking lad with a nice personality so experienced romance at an early age.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
To think about their novels fully before they start writing and if they have not had any romance in their life don't try and write about it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
I have not been given any advice on writing.

What are you reading now?
All my experience with writing comes from within myself and I am not influenced by any other writing.

What’s your biggest weakness?
I need to have more time to enjoy the time to myself and realise that life is for living.

What is your favorite book of all time?
I have not got one, the books I have read were mostly at university.

When you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time?
I have other businesses so if I get time I like to go on holidays, days out including going out for meals and walking in the countryside getting close to nature.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
I don't remember.

What has inspired you and your writing style?
I never set off with any intentions or expected my books to do so well, that was more of a dream than a reality.

What are you working on now?
My current book is at the publishers now, it is a Sci-Fi and is the first one of a sextet and is called The Sixth Dimension Defined.

What is your favorite method for promoting your work?
Advertising, promotion and word of mouth.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The next thing is writing the next five books to complete the sextet.

How well do you work under pressure?
I work very well under pressure because I have had to over the years with different developments. I have been in property development for forty years and that comes with a certain amount of pressure on a daily basis.

How do you decide what tone to use with a particular piece of writing?
This depends on how slow or fast paced the story is or if it is sad or exciting as to what tone I use.

If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be?
Hopefully the joy of my books.

Neil Vickers’s Author Websites and Profiles
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