I am a recently retired Paramedic,Scottish Ambulance Service, and have a BSc in Health Studies.
The Forgotten Templars Volume 1 The Manuscript is my first full length novel and I wrote the novel over a period of almost 2 years. This sounds a long time but most writing was done in the small town of Barga, Italy during visits there. I would reckon that the actual writing took less than 3 months, about 4 weeks more than the editing took.
The idea for this book, first in series, has been in my head and written on scraps of paper for over 10 years, suddenly during one stay in Barga I decide do to try putting my thoughts down. I realised quickly that I needed a lot more research to make the novel realistic both historically and in the present.
The areas and settings are historically correct as are some of the characters, both Templar and similar orders. I used "artistic licence " with some historical facts along with inventing some characters.
In the present day section I tried to be as accurate as possible, I wanted as much realism in the storyline as possible therefore the settings are mostly real places, sometimes with name changes, as with Barga which became San Cristoforo slightly disguised.
It is a simple adventure story which becomes more involved as you read and is to be followed shortly by Vol. 2 'The Shield and the Lost Ship' which carries on the adventure.
An update to The Forgotten Templar's has been put on Amazon Kindle which confirms that it is part of a series and gives a short taster of The Shield and the Lost Ship.
I have found I really enjoy writing and to be honest the research needed before I can start the storytelling.
If anyone wants to contact me then I'm on
Twitter. @forgottemplars
Facebook. www.facebook.com/theforgottentemplars
E-mail. mcaldwellhunter@talktalk.net