Deric Barry

Hi, I'm Deric Barry, a retired engineer. I've been writing since leaving school many years ago. I've written short stories, articles, poetry, novels on travel and adventure, humour and I've even written a cookery book. I once edited a small press magazine for animal lovers which I called Animal Crackers. In the magazine I published stories, poetry, anecdotes and jokes that writers sent in to me. I organised writing competitions and gave a cash prize to the winner. It was very time consuming but I enjoyed doing it for the two years that it lasted. Sadly, the membership dropped off until it was no longer viable and I closed it down.

I joined hubpages almost a year ago and have written 100 hubs. My subjects are many and varied: I write on history, technology, science, DIY, cooking, and anything that I find interesting, hoping that others will find the subjects interesting as well.

I've learned a lot from the free information that I've found on this site. There are some excellent hubs on Search Engine Optimisation, Marketing, Affiliate programmes, How to create backlinks and loads more. I've just joined Marty Ware's hubpages tribe to promote hubs by other hubbers and to have them promote mine. I'm sure it will work out absolutely great.

I served my National Service in the Royal Navy which gave me the inspiration to write a book entitled, 'The National Heroes,' a story of conscripts serving their time on a destroyer. They become typical matelots, getting in to scrapes, falling foul of authority, travelling the world while serving their country. They are involved in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and get a taste of war, where they are 'mentioned in despatches.'

Having travelled worldwide in my job as an underwater systems engineer, I used my experiences in different countries to inspire me to write fiction about some of the countries I visited. 'White Slaves' was written, tongue in cheek, about middle east countries. In this book I introduce Hislop, the cowardly and vastly overweight private detective who hates violence, especially when its aimed at himself, and Raza the frightening Arab who threatens to make a eunuch out of Hislop.

'Innocent on the Run,' written after my visits to America tells the tale of a young lad whose burning ambition is to go to sea. He is offered a job on a ship sailing to America and he jumps at the chance. But, he gets drunk at a party ashore and his ship sails without him, so he goes on the run, thinking he will be jailed as an illegal immigrant.

'Hislop's Nigerian Nightmare,' is about our cowardly detective again. In this story he works for H.M. Customs and Excise, tracing crooks who export stolen car parts from U.K. to Nigeria..

'Mayhem in the Valleys' is a book of Welsh humour, sometimes described as the Welsh Last of the Summer Wine. But to read this book you have to have a knowledge of how the Welsh valleys people talk, as it's in the valleys' idiom.

My cookery book, 'Succulent Savouries' was written when I was horrified to read of all the preservatives and other nasties that the big companies put in our food. I make sausages, pasties, and pies in my own style, as I like to know what goes into my food.

All told, hubpages has been a great experience for me. I've learned a lot and I've earned money from my articles, I've met some excellent friends and read a lot of their first class writing.

Long may it continue. Deric Barry.

My books are all self published using www.Lulu.com, a print on demand company.

Visit my website to read chapters from all my books.