Gregory N Taylor

I was born in Dunstable in the UK, moving to Maidenhead at the age of six, and then moved to the south coast of England (Gosport and Portsmouth) in 1987. Having travelled abroad extensively, I took a leap of faith and moved to Brazil in 2007 where I teach English to Brazilians. It has been a mixed and interesting experience, from learning a completely new language and culture to discovering more about myself as a person. It is here in Brazil that I felt an urge to write novels, to let my imagination wander and to try to answer the question 'what if?'

I started writing because I had just gone through a very bad personal experience in Brazil and it acted as a kind of self-therapy. The first couple of chapters that I wrote were based on that experience but then I realised that I was enjoying the process of writing a novel, but not enjoying the book I was writing. I abandoned those two chapters and decided to write something that I would enjoy writing and that others would hopefully enjoy reading. Thus was born my first novel, ‘Virtual Messiah’, which I self-published as an e-book. I think of Virtual Messiah as my writing training wheels. I have just finished my second novel ‘Past Live's, Future Deaths'

I like to think that my writing process is dynamic. I start off with the seed of an idea and, depending upon how much of the plot I have thought through, I just start writing. My mind and my characters often lead me down unchartered paths.

As a reader my reading tastes are quite eclectic, as is my taste in music. I particularly enjoy reading Bernard Cornwell novels (especially the Sharpe series). The authors Ben Elton and Neil Gaimon are personal favourites too. I read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as an adolescent and began rereading it last year but I stopped reading it as I didn’t want it to influence ‘Past Lives, Future Deaths’.

I'm now trying to find a literary agent to accept 'Past Lives, Future Deaths' whilst planning my next novel 'Echoes of Savages'.