Hi! As you can probably see by the giant red writing, my name is Alexander. I grew up in a rural northern town along the coastline and spent the last four years mostly in London completing both my undergraduate studies at Middlesex University and my postgraduate studies at City, University London. My love of nature has been influenced by my upbringing, and has seemed to permeate most of my work. In Flâner, Esme is escaping the gloomy city for a serene seaside town.  The Mother of God was created during my second year of undergraduate studies, during the pandemic, and here the rural mountainscapes of Madeira offered an escape. 

 

My mother has a love of crime writing. I grew up reading John Grisham, somehow too young to read Lynda La Plante, and was adamant I would one day become a writer myself. She also introduced me to the world of gaming, as I used to sit and watch her play Spyro the Dragon, and a few years later would be playing Tomb Raider Legend on the same television. My dreams of becoming a writer never changed - I really have written my whole life, and the Pokemon fan-fiction I used to make during after-school club counts - but they changed as I began to make games myself.

 

Studying game design gave me a unique set of skills I hadn't anticipated having as I went into my creative writing MA. My focus on environmental storytelling provides a distinctive voice to most of my pieces, and is just one of the transferable skills I have picked up through game development. It makes sense now that my aspiration lies in one day becoming a narrative designer.

 

Currently playing: Final Fantasy XIV, Fields of Mistria, and Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley.

Currently reading: One Piece

Currently doing: Working on my very first novella!

Currently daydreaming about: Opening a bakery