Richard Rees is originally from Wrexham, North Wales, where he had an Accountancy practice, but became a writer after the deaths of his young wife, Richenda, then his only daughter, Elisabeth, from ovarian cancer. He now lives a quiet life in the seaside town of Llandudno, at the foot of the Snowdonia National Park, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and so sounds a bit of a bore, but is gregarious, keeps fit, swims, drives fast and doesn't play golf.Personal addition to my brief bio:This is my very first "blog" (for want of another noun). Before I wrote it, I didn't even know what the word meant, there's no mention of it in my Oxford Dictionary. So I guessed it was a computer word. Trouble is, I'm computer stupid. And everything to do with Kindling my books has had to be done for me. The one consolation is that all the people involved with it are great. Tim, who put my books live on to Kindle for me. Paul and Rachel who designed my website: www.richardhrees.com. Louise, who designed the jacket covers for "Dear Abigail" and "Twice Upon A Thanksgiving". I couldn't have done it without them, and I'm lucky to have made such good friends in the process. I'm also hoping to make new ones. All of you who honour me by wanting to read my books, and are welcome to write to me through my website (hoping not too many will think my stories are bilge). But to say something about my four books. The advice I was first given was to Kindle them one at a time, and announce when the next etc., etc., would be published. This is the route I would have taken had all four been in the same genre. Or the first of a series of books featuring the same hero/heroine, a sort of Kindled "James Bond". But mine are not. Not in the same genre. Or part of a series. They're all different, caused quite simply by different ideas coming to me from nowhere almost, and then germinating in my mind until I just have to write them. After a lot of research first, that is. Which I believe is an essential part of a good book. Know your facts. Much of this can now be found on the Internet, but in my case this isn't so, and I have to find it in traditional hardback books in The British Library and The London Library (and once a wonderful week spent in Oxford's Bodleian Library) which means spending weeks in the capital - but there again, that's not a bad thing, being looked after royally in my regular hotel, and able to take in the theatres in the evenings. My first published book, The Illuminati Conspiracy (Hodder & Stoughton, London) came to me when I was living on the Gower peninsula in South Wales (I was an accountant at the time; I'd written a number of short stories and had them appear in various newspapers and magazines). A mile or so away from my then home were the ruins, hidden in sand dunes, of an old cottage, and on the cliff-top above it, the foundations - all that remained - of an old manor house. I found it was once the home of a family named Lucas, who had built their wealth on generations of smuggling, starting with the first of that ilk who was forced to share his profits 50/50 with King Henry VIII in return for being left free to continue his trade. There was also rumour of a secret tunnel linking the cottage to the manor house, and my first intention was to write a smuggling story similar to Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn. But when I started my research I uncovered a wealth of other facts, of treason, of a covert plot to take over England, the success of which depended on the outcome of a mighty sea-battle between a combined Franco-Spanish fleet, and an English fleet under the command of Lord Horatio Nelson, that the smuggling story was forgotten and The Illuminati Conspiracy was born. It was published to great reviews and I hope that those of you who decide to read it on Kindle will enjoy it just as much. I naturally thought to follow this up with another Historical thriller, but then one evening saw a television documentary about the mystery of the New York brigantine, Mary Celeste, which had been found derelict but intact in mid-Atlantic, with all her complement vanished as if into thin air. But more importantly to me, its fate was still a mystery to that day. And there and then I decided that this would be my next book. I would solve it. My research took me not only back to The British and London Libraries, but also to New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, Genoa and Portofino, and finally to the Vatican in Rome. But I solved it, gave the kudos to a fictional New Yorker and his estranged wife, Michael and Colleen Callaghan, and it was published to such comments as: Richard Rees's research is as meticulous as Frederick Forsyth's, or George Macdonald Fraser's, from the Press Association News, London. Now re-titled THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE: THE SOLUTION, to those of you who choose this to read as your first choice, I again hope you will like it. But then, while researching my third novel, a Historical again, my wife, Richenda (we first went out together when we were sixteen) was diagnosed to have ovarian cancer. I put my writing aside and cared for her until she died in my arms. It took me months to return to my writing, only for my only daughter, Elisabeth, to be found to have the same disease, and again I put my writing aside to care for her and her new born baby. Elisabeth died exactly two years later. After that I took a break from writing novels, and after seeing another TV documentary, this time about Niccolo Paganini, still regarded as the world's greatest ever violinist - his playing was so mesmeric the Church of Rome accused him of being in league with The Devil - and I decided to write a screenplay about him. His life was so full, with so many biographies about him (one takes 3 volumes) it took me two years to research. The final script, which I titled DIABOLUS IN MUSICA, was optioned by a Hollywood production company, but then, when it was in early development, the director Bernard Rose (of Immortal Beloved fame) announced that he was already in production with his own film: PAGANINI: THE DEVIL'S VIOLINIST, and this put an end to mine. Sadly, Rose's film bombed, but it killed off all thoughts of DIABOLUS being produced. So, I'm now thinking of using my script as a basis - and utilising all my research - to write Paganini's story as a novel. It's but a thought at the moment, but getting stronger by the day. Meantime, I had also written a novel based on an idea suggested to me by Elisabeth a month before she died. Entitled TWICE UPON A THANSGIVING, and published for the first time in Kindle, it's not in the same genre as either ILLUMINATI or MARY CELESTE, but rather a Romance, a love story, which I wrote mostly for her, but it still has elements of historical research in it, which is a peculiarity of mine, I suppose. For those of you who prefer Romance to Historicals, I hope you'll enjoy it, too. During this time, I'd also written DEAR ABIGAIL as a catharsis for my grief, both for Richenda and Elisabeth. I'd no intention of ever publishing it, but friends of mine who I've allowed to read it, think I should, if only to let other carers out there know they're not alone. And so, I've let myself be persuaded, again for the first time in Kindle. I won't say to those of you who opt to read it, particularly carers, "I hope you enjoy it", it wasn't written to be enjoyed, but rather that it will speak to you, not only in many different ways, but, in particular, to your own individual circumstance(s). I had hoped to also say something of what makes so many of us want to be writers, but I reckon I've run out of space. But briefly, I think it's born in us, from when we devour our first childrens books, and out of that let our young imaginations run wild. Once that bug is there, implanted in us, it never goes away. And that's the truth of it.