An Aberdeen man has written his first book – after finding inspiration on a quiet evening in front of the television.
After working for 28 years in the oil industry, Craig Duncan self-published his first novel The Trader and has already started penning another.
“To be honest, writing a book had never really entered my mind,” the 44-year-old said.
“There was nothing on the TV one night last year and I had my laptop home with me so I just started to write.
“The idea came purely from my imagination and I just expanded the story and characters as I went.”
Mr Duncan’s book follows born and bred Aberdonian Bronson Larkin, a dealer of fine art and rare antiques, who travels the world making deals for high-value collectibles.
Throughout the 30-year adventure he meets a wide cast of characters in New York City, Berlin and San Marino, as well as locations closer to home in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
“I actually finished the book within three months,” he explained.
“It’s about 90,000 words and it was just done on weekends and evenings when I was pottering about.
“I did get some help from a friend of mine who is a book publisher, who helped me to add elements to make it more suspenseful and tense.”
After testing the waters by giving his tome to family and friends, Mr Duncan released his book online earlier this month.
He says it has been well-received.
He said: “Those who have read it so far have said they really enjoyed it.
“I’m really pleased with how it has been received so far.
“I was very wary of how to put it out there, so I decided on self-publishing.
“I had no idea if it was any good.
“My family told me it was good – but I couldn’t take their view as anything other than biased.”
The author has already started writing his next title, The Fixer.
Its central character has been described as “a one-man A Team,” who solves problems for the residents of New York City, operating out of a network of secret speakeasies.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the writing process for The Trader,” Mr Duncan said.
“It felt like an escape to just go into my imagination and disappear into a world I’m creating on the hoof.
“I seem to have plenty of ideas, but maybe I just have an overactive imagination – although as an author, that’s maybe not a bad thing.”
