Writer's Island

To boldly go where no one has written before.

To write new stories and carve out new territories in literature.

To take the imagination further out than it has ever been before.

    Caldey Island, off the south Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, within sight of Tenby and its beaches, is a place of escape and contemplation. A writer’s convention or gathering descend upon the island, a new venture to encourage the arts and stimulate ideas. Nick has come here to find peace and quiet, and to use the facilities to talk to other writers and meet people of like minds.

    Clutching his precious bag, which contains notebooks, with some of his current writing, and some which was done a couple of years before and has already typed onto his computer files back home, and his wads of paper, some of which has been written on. He has also brought a couple of memory sticks, with copies of many of his works. He gets onto the boat at the beach, using the mobile quay platform. The boatmen help him on. He must save his writing from any spray and waves which may come over the sides of the boat.

     There are, in this alternative world, markets insatiable for the written word. The Chinese middle classes, and people generally, are reading more and more literature. Newly prosperous and with a bit more time and money in their hands, now the state has decreed reductions in working hours and increased holidays, they are buying books over the internet and E books. So are the people of India and many countries.

    New laws to improve the internet came in a few years before to ensure that royalties should be paid when writers’ work is placed on the internet, even in serialized form. So writers were suddenly being paid again for the work they were publishing as books, poetry or series. This made it more possible for writers to make a partial living from writing. Really popular stories were being viewed around the world, and royalties were coming in, direct to the author. So it was important for Nick to finish one or two of his novels to satisfy his readers and to earn more than a few pennies. Nick had readers in America and in a few countries around the world. He hoped to become popular in China, because it was such a growing lucrative market, and European writers were often revered there.