New Moon Published
My story "New Moon" is now up on Lorelei Signal. They are one of the better Fantasy E-zines, although they do suffer from the usual genre problem that the artwork doesn't quite match the story....
I am a writer
The title of this page is actually a reference to a novel I started writing a few years back. This was something I briefly dabbled in when I was at school, but my efforts then were dismal. Encouraged and helped by the Cambridge Writers of Imaginative Literature (formerly Cambridge Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Group) I've improved a lot. Indeed I've had short stories published in a couple of anthologies; Dusted and Ghosts And Demons.
I am a classic car owner
Ever since my first car I've been a collector and amateur restorer of Classic Triumphs. My main current project is a 1970 model Mk3 Spitfire, and has been for altogether too long. I also act as a 'technical consultant' and area organiser for Club Triumph.
... and?
Well, those are two reasons you may have heard of me, if you have particular connections. So that's why I listed them first. But they're not the most important things.
I am a Christian
I worship at Cottenham Baptist, which is my local church. Actually, technically, it's my third closest but when I moved here I tried a few and settled at CBC. It's a very friendly place, a real family of God's people. I sing in the music group, sometimes help with youth work, and have occasionally made a right mess of the odd sketch.
Since 2000 I have been involved with a Scripture Union holiday called LiveWires. This is a technology based holiday for 12-15 year olds. It's a brilliant event that takes two weeks of annual leave and leaves the team totally exhausted, but seeing God at work in the young people is amazing.
I am a Geek
I work as a software engineer, and (dare I say it) a very good one. At the moment I'm holding down two jobs.
My main employer is Cosworth, where I started in January 2012. I am part of the Pectel controls division, writing software for motorsport engine controllers. Before that I was at Pi Innovo (formerly Pi Shurlok, formerly Pi Technology) where I designed fuel injection control software for road cars, exhaust after-treatment software, and sometimes "infotainment" units such as a bluetooth enabled, MP3 capable, iPod friendly radio for a motorbike. I have a reputation as a guru, which is somewhat exaggerated, but in terms of difficult and challenging problems on the low-level system architecture side of things it may be not entirely unjustified.
I also work for my brother's company, Oxford Vacuum Science Ltd., as the electronics and software specialist. Basically, any custom electronics, firmware or software in an OVS system is my creation.
A lot of the electronics I design for OVS uses PIC micros. The code for these is developed on Linux using open source tools, including the Gnu PIC Simulator. I've been one of the developers on GPSim for some years now.
In my spare time I am supposedly building a model railway, in the loft space (which has been converted nicely for it). I use Digital Command Control from a Linux PC using the LinTrain system that I created myself. I often do things the hard way.
Other stuff I do
From time to time I get involved in charity events, usually with some connection to the above. For example, I have driven seven of my cars round Britain (one twice) for Leukaemia research, Alzheimer's research, MacMillan Cancer Relief, Children With Leukaemia, Multiple Sclerosis, the RNLI, and Mind.
It's definitely time for a more recent photo, but....
This rather grainy and low contrast picture was taken from the back of the audience at a Hibachi Dealers acoustic gig at CB2 in Cambridge. It was one of our worst performances ever. The band no longer exists, and I'm not playing rock these days.