"I'm a balding old man who scribbles for a living. I loveplaying the jester. In life and in my writing, I always try to find something worth smiling about.

Life is not always easy but we do make it worse sometimes by forgetting the good and seeing too much of what is wrong.

I don't have much of a plan of how my day will go. I usually wake up earlyandtry to writeas much as possible while I'm fresh and clear.I work fromhome, so unless I have an early appointment I proceed to have a lengthy breakfast with Louise, my wife, and then get back to work.

I set myself a goal of writing about 2,000 words a day. I drift from one project or article to another - I am terribly uncoordinated and any time-management coach would certainly give up on me. I'm also super-agile at getting distracted  -  from making coffee to sharpening pencils to writing inane emails or seeing what other jokers have to say on social media. Mid-morning I bathe, shave and then back to work. Lunch is a quick sandwich followed by a pod of caffeine and then either meetings and interviews or back to the writing grind. Unless weare meeting friends or family, I try to go for a walk then have a leisurely dinner with Louise followed by reading, more reading and then off to the Land of Nod. I didn't think I was a man of routine - but all this makes me sound as if I really am.

The first years of school that I rememberwere terrible. I hated school. I think I have a complete aversion to learning anything new and everything was new at St Joseph's, Sliema. All this was further compounded because my first teacher actually taught me the ABC in the wrong way. I preferred staying at home, but my parents thought otherwise. Why are parents such dictators? My older siblings - all four of them - loved school and came back home talking enthusiastically about what they had done, learnt and been told. I decided quite early that my family were all nuts - my parents for sending me to school and my siblings for raving about it.

SoI attended St Joseph's, and then I was ordered by my father to make it a point to win a placeat the best school, the Lyceum. If I thought St Joseph's was bad, I quickly realised that this was hell. St Joseph'ssuddenly seemed like the Golden Age where everything was bright and perfect. At junior school it was nuns and gloriously sweet teachers looking after us. This contrasted with the Lyceum where it was tougher, with all sorts of students to live with.

I think that there should be more creative writing at all levels of education. I think everyone should be encouraged to write, to express themselves. Even if writing, like most creative talents, cannot be just taught, it definitely needs nurturing. I never really had the opportunity myself. I was never praised for my writing skills and I never knew of this talent - if I do have it - until very late in life. Had circumstances not dictated that I get 'discovered' in my fifties, I would never have started writing. Maybe for the world that would not have been such a bad thing! I've been an avid reader since I was 15 (yes, I was a late starter in nearly everything) and I firmly believe that reading is the most important basic for writing.  

I began to enjoy writingwhen I was in my mid-fifties. I knew that I wanted to write Where's My brother? when I started writing about incidentsin my life in local magazines and people enjoyed the stories. The book is a light, flighty look at some colourful incidents inmy life:a bit of nostalgia from my younger days. So far, most people have given me tremendously positive feedback. But then, few would admit to having hated it. It's not chronological - it reflects my own way of living, skipping from one thing to the other, digressing and managing to talk in a way that baffles most people. As I say in the book, if I'm asked to do so professionally I can write chronologically and in a very orderly way. But my life is not like that at all. My brain is likea cluttered drawer, full of colour and fun and a touch of mayhem.

I am writing three books at the moment and I am also ghosting a book of memoirs by a leading Maltese personality. One day, if I have the time, I will also get hold of my silly - some are serious - poems and see what can be donewith them. Also, if I am given an extension to my life,I hope to produce a book of fictional short stories and finish off with a big bang - my own novel, my own magnum opus.

I have never believed in conspiracy theories but I do have one for everything that is happening in the world right now: could Putin be an alien who is programmed to be indestructible and is slowly helping his minions take over the world?"