About Me

It all started with a dream....

My journey into the world of story writing was not a goal of mine growing up to say the least. Although, I loved books and reading as a young boy I was too boisterous, energetic and needed to be outdoors. In fact, growing up I wanted nothing more than to become a professional footballer having played from an early age. By the time I turned sixteen, I realised the dream of turning professional wasn't going to materialise. So, into the working life I ventured aimlessly floating from job to job not knowing what I wanted to do for a career. A few years later, I found a reliable position working for the Welsh Government, and there I remained for some time. However, my drive and desire to become successful in life in some form was always at the forefront of my mind.

By the time my thirtieth birthday came, I felt like life was over for me (enter the midlife crisis). Like many others, I had fallen into the trap of job security, paying taxes, spending, buying a house, incurring debt and living from paycheck to paycheck. Fear of change that could disrupt or diminish my livelihood, kept me bound to the employer. Albeit,

opportunities invariably arose to climb the corporate ladder were attractable by the increase in salary, still wasn't enough to entice me to do so. I wouldn't have felt truly happy or fulfilled in any roles I succeeded in getting. The problem was, I saw myself as a number to the employer, someone who was easily expendable and this was an issue for me. I yearned to be a great achiever who inspired others, most of all my own children. But in what exactly, I did not have the faintest notion.

I felt stuck in a rut that I couldn't climb out of, the years had passed by and with it I grew more and more depressed as time went on.

My ambition to become successful was like a dying candle inside my soul that was about to go out at the slightest breath of wind. Until one day, something remarkable happened to me in the start of spring, 2011. Saturday, 2nd April I woke from a dream that felt so incredibly real that for the rest of the day I could not focus on anything else or shake the strange feeling it gave me. Even today, the vision is still clearly etched into my mind.

Me: Straddling a dragon upon which I rode, navigating it through the burning night sky lit up by ferocious dragon's engaged in battle, all the while chasing a demon lord who was riding another.

I have to say, I've had my fair share of weird and crazy dreams over the years but none that haunted me like this before. Why on god's green earth would something like that stick in my mind and what did it mean exactly? I kept asking myself.

For years my wife had been urging me to write down my dreams, and though I tried to forget about it and ignore her words, this time I could not. For the vision was troubling me like an itch that I could not scratch every hour that passed me by. Only from putting pen to paper and scribbling everything down did I feel any sense of relief. In that moment I felt an explosion of excitement burst inside of me, and for as long as I could remember I knew what I wanted to be in life.

I was going to be a successful writer, I told myself, and no one was going to stop me. I don’t care how long it takes, the sacrifice I will have to make or how many roadblocks were going to be in my way, it's not going to stop me. Just keep taking one foot in front of the other and keep walking that long road ahead of you until you reach the end.

Today, I am incredibly proud of myself to say that as a result of my hard work and determination, and my wife’s encouragement and support throughout the years' (although not initially in the early stages, I think she thought I had lost my mind as a result of my midlife crisis when I told her and she didn't believe me), I am now heading in the right direction to achieving my greatest goal. And by self-publishing my first book – Joseph Van Pearce and the Prophecy of the Dragon’s Head Medallion – which, thanks to my dream now forms part of the story and opening chapter – Chapter 1. Dreaming in Reality – it has given me confidence to excel beyond belief.

If I could give one piece of advice to anyone who is holding back from chasing their dream, I'd say this to them: Do not postpone your dreams 'til tomorrow, for tomorrow brings another chance to repeat the same excuse why you never started today.

To those who have supported me from the start of this journey, I love you all and God bless. Brampton x