Edward Williams

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.

From the West Country, UK, and I've travelled extensively since living in Turkey for a couple of years as a child. This is when I really discovered books, three Hardy Boys books a week at eight or nine years old and I've been reading ever since. Studied International Relations at university, spent five years writing feature articles for Soft Secrets magazine about the global 'war against drugs', author of Framed & Hunted and creator of Phantom Ant Publishing.

When and why did you start writing books?

Around 2009. After graduating from university I still had a lot of ideas that I wanted to get down on digital paper so I started a blog to centralise it all. Eighteen months later I turned the best of it into my first book: 'Be Heard'.

What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?

I quit a teaching job abroad without understanding the difference between a work permit and a work visa. My permit was job specific so when I quit the job the permit became invalid. I didn't find that out until I'd just landed another teaching job - one minute I'd got the job, the next minute it was 'sorry your permit is invalid, I can't employ you, you're already illegal for two weeks.' The overstay fine cleaned me out so, skint and stuck on tourist visa, I put together a two thousand word article about Moroccan hash and managed to sell it to a European magazine for four hundred Euros. The editor took two more articles from me as quick as I could write them, after that travelling the world and documenting the domestic dynamics of the global 'war against drugs' became my life style. It was a mission from God!

Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?

Framed & Hunted is the best book I've written for lots of reasons. It took a lot out of me, forcing me to relive some massively challenging times and traumatic events, but its had significant real world impact and I know its a book of real substance that can help, inform, inspire, motivate, protect and/or challenge every single reader.

Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?

'World War Weed: Plant Life' was a monster. It took five years to research and write and then, six months before I got all of the publishing rights back from the magazine, life pulled the rug out from under me and it took another three years to get it finished. By that time it was already three years old and life was getting tough again so I didn't even promote it. Certain elements of the world were, quite literally, conspiring against me. That's what Framed & Hunted is about.

Who is your favourite author and book?

That's an impossible question to answer. I'm a big fan of Snowblind, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Mr Nice and Papillon. The author that gave me most enjoyment was Hunter S Thompson, though my perception of the world has changed massively since those days.

What book are you reading right now?

Manufacturing Global Dissent by Gary Bonick Jr.

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

Real life.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Smoking hash and stripping copper cable.

Do you have any new books in the works?

Not that I'm writing, though I do hope to be publishing the work of other writers under the banner of Phantom Ant Publishing very soon. It will be focused on the spectacular, inspiring, motivating and empowering true stories of other people, but that won't be its sole focus.