Carl Bayley: Storyteller
I knew I wanted to write from an early age, but it took me a long time to settle on the right story. The difficulty I faced was genre. I loved suspense thrillers, but I liked historical adventure, or a good horror story, as well. I liked a bit of humour, some romance… dare I say it, even something a little raunchy. And I loved the freedom to let my imagination run wild that fantasy and science fiction provided.
As I got older, I became fascinated by the vast sweep of human history, the many possible settings for tragic tales, stimulating stories, and epic adventures. At the same time, I grew increasingly interested in examining the human condition: exploring the thrill of love; the conflicts created by loyalty and ambition; the trauma of loss, grief, and despair… and countless other emotions. I also realised fiction provided the opportunity for some social commentary, and for confronting the age-old questions of our very existence.
I’d like to think my writing does all this. When I’m forced to say which genre my books are, I say ‘fantasy’. But, really, they’re all of them. And that’s what you’ll find when you read anything I’ve written, but The Souls Series most of all, because it is the right story, the story I’ve been waiting to tell all my life.
How Did I Get Here?
Moving to Scotland in 1997, I fell in love with my new homeland’s landscape and history. The country ignited my creative passion and gave me the impetus to finally pursue my lifelong ambition to tell timeless stories weaving together past, present, and future. I have channelled that passion into a series of fantasy novels telling the story of souls bound together by love, hate, fear, and destiny across all human history. Three novels have been published in The Souls Series to date, attracting many four- and five-star reviews on Amazon and other platforms.
At the same time as writing The Souls Series, I’ve been branching out into other projects, some of them under my alternate pen name, C. B. Hennefer. Under this pseudonym, I’m about to publish Reborn, the story of a reluctant vampire.
For me, writing is not only a passion, it’s a way of life. While novels are the big projects that I really enjoy sinking my teeth into (pun intended), I also love producing short stories with a twist, and you’ll see a few of these on the Writing page. My stories have been compared to some great writers like Arthur C. Clarke and Douglas Adams; writers with truly wonderful imaginations, and a macabre, dark sense of irony sprinkled with enough humour to sweeten its bitter taste. I often feel there is a bit of Stephen King creeping into my twisted tales too. Such comparisons are, of course, immensely flattering, but I will leave it to you to decide if they are warranted.
What Else Do I Do?
Yes, in case you’re wondering, I am the same Carl Bayley who is the author of over twenty popular, plain English tax guides, available from Taxcafe, including what was, at one time, the best-selling print on demand publication in the UK (my first bestseller).
Writing the tax guides has taught me how to explain complex principles in simple language that readers can understand, and I think I’ve put that experience to good use in high concept novels like The Souls Series. But that’s pretty much where any similarities end: tax by day, fantasy by night, that’s my mantra.
When I’m not working, I enjoy hillwalking, horse-riding, real ale, and a good malt whisky. And, of course, spending time exploring Scotland with my partner, the Lovely Lady Linda (we do venture elsewhere occasionally too).