MJ Watts
Author
A gripping saga of innocents caught up in barbarous witch
persecutions, and the zealotry, lust and greed that turned
ordinary men and women into cruel and ruthless
oppressors.
The first novel
Bio
After a long and, for the most part, fulfilling working life, I retired in 2019 with
a renewed determination to write the novel that had been building in my
mind for many years. I have dabbled in writing over the years but, to be
honest, I probably needed a kick up the rear to get going. I finally did. The
Worms' In Fools' Fingers is my first novel, four years in the writing, and at least
a year trying to break into the fortress that is the publishing world. Persistence
paid off and the novel was released on 24 May 2024.
I have had a varied career, having been a chef, a publican and a civil servant,
during which time I contributed to the delivery of some modern IT systems.
When I realised that technology was moving so fast that I could never keep
up, I retired to spend time writing, playing guitar, hill walking and finding and
enjoying good beer and, more recently developed a palate for malt whisky. I
have travelled widely, absorbing impressions of places and of people and their
stories for future inspiration.
Writing
I write as I read - going along without really knowing what is going to happen
next, beyond the ever changing synopsis I keep in my head. I often research as I
write, but my main inspiration is always my travels, so my work includes a lot of
places, mainly in Europe that I have visited and that have fascinated me with
their own stories of their people and the events that have defined them.
My chosen genre is historical fiction. It was always going to be, because that is
where my interest lies, particularly the 16th and 17th centuries that, I find, are
often neglected in historical novels. I try to be as accurate as possible, but I
confess that I do take some liberties for the sake of the story. Inevitably, real
people from those times will appear in the narrative, as a result of their place in
history, and when that has been the case, I hope that I have done them justice.