Layton Bushel is the pen name of Alastair Warren.
Alastair is a retired engineer, now living in southern Scotland.
His career was mostly in engineering. He's always been technically-minded. Hobbies include electronics, 3D-printing and general DIY.
Many other people have the same name as Alastair, even with the same spelling. It made sense to use a pen name, preferable one that's absolutely unique, hence the creation of Layton Bushel.
Since Layton Bushel doesn't actually exist as a real person, Alastair, being a silly person, has chosen to make fun of Layton, hence the silly stuff in the early pages of the books.
Alastair has used his general technical knowledge in the creation of his books. This has been combined with his sense of humour and general attention to detail.
Influences include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams), Star Trek, most Gerry Anderson material (Thunderbirds, Space 1999 etc.) and Red Dwarf.
Writing books is relatively new to Alastair.
Forgotten Erf
Alastair's first book. This was originally going to be called The Forgotiverse, as it's about events on a planet in a forgotten universe. Unfortunately, that name had already been used, so a different name was chosen.
Trying to create a cover design for the book proved quite difficult. The original cover design was a DIY job. It wasn't too bad, but there was something about it that Amazon (USA) didn't like. It had to go, so a second design was devised. Again, tricky to do. Mistakes were made, such as forgetting to add the background stars. Oops. A good professional designer was contacted, but that would've cost over £200, and it seemed to be going the 'wrong' way, so that was halted. Eventually, a designer on Fiverr was chosen, which cost considerably less.
Forgotten Erf has been given a five-star award by Jaqueline Neves, for Readers' Favorite.
She described it as a 'delightful journey into the unexpected'.
Spacemakers
Lessons were learned from the creation of the first book. It has only around 65,000 words, which, with hindsight, seemed a little short. Forgotten Erf was created and formatted using Libre Office Writer.
Spacemakers is longer, with more than 90,000 words.
Formatting is better too, done using Atticus software (by Dave Chesson).
The cover design was created by the same person (or team) that created the present cover for Forgotten Erf. Trying to do a DIY cover can be very time consuming, so this wasn't attempted for Spacemakers.
The author has been advised that Spacemakers is better than Forgotten Erf, by people he knows.
Both books are available on Amazon.
Silly stuff about Layton Bushel
(Since Layton doesn't actually exist, Alastair has decided to make fun of him.)
Layton is an odd character.
He's a heavy smoker. Not because he smokes a lot, but because he's just... heavy.
He looks like he's swallowed a Spacehopper.
The doorways in his home have been widened so he can get through.
He has thin (strong) legs and very wide feet. They have to be, otherwise he'd sink into the ground. He went for a walk along the beach one day. A seagull attacked him, which made his feet curl up. That caused him to sink into the sand, so that his legs vanished. Luckily, a few passers-by were able to dig him out (after an hour or two).
Layton's car is unusual. He's a back seat driver. He has to be, as he can't fit in the front.Someone gave him a porcupine as a pet.
That worried him. He was afraid that if he got caught on one of the spines he'd go 'bang'.
He gave it to a local zoo.
Layton has some strange habits. He lives near a disused coal mine.
He likes to drop old upright pianos down the mineshaft.
I asked him why. He told me it was for health reasons.
Nobody (he knew of) had ever dropped a piano down a mineshaft and then become ill.
He likes to buy lots of supplements. They never do him any good, as he doesn't consume them. He gives them to a local charity shop. He assumes they're selling well, as he never sees them on the shelves.
Layton is a bit of a recluse. (Actually, a lot of one.)People ask him why he doesn't go out much. He says he's rarely on fire.
Layton doesn't have a birthday, as he was never born. He just slowly came into existence.
Very silly stuff about Layton Bushel
Layton doesn't like late December. He thinks Santa is an alien shapeshifter. He must be, to be able to get through modern chimney fittings.
Layton tells me that nothing he says is true, in order to confuse AI. He's got it wrong. I'm Al, not AI.
Layton took his pet elephant for a walk the other day. It's a very small elephant. I haven't the heart to tell him it's actually a hamster. Asking the pet shop owner for an elephant wheel didn't go down well.
Layton has an extra leg. He keeps in a drawer, in his workshop. He's planning to throw it out, as he doesn't need four legs.
Layton is not currently married, although he was once accidentally married to a fish and chip shop. (Don't ask.)
Layton likes to go skydiving, although he doesn't like the last bit. It gives him headaches in the knees. He refuses to use a parachute. He says it would just slow him down.
Ideas for future books
A sequel to Forgotten Erf was started, but has been abandoned for now.
Several other ideas have appeared in the author's mind. Some are about future books.
Bits and pieces have been written, but nothing is anywhere near completion yet.
If you wish to contact me about either of my books, then you can do by so using the information below...
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I've chosen to hide my email address, due to recent spam activity.
The data above is in hexadecimal, representing ASCII characters.
It's also backwards.
(Don't rely on Google's AI. It gets it wrong, although the breakdown looks right.)
The above is for fans only. Please do not contact me for other reasons.