They say writers never retire.
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Who’s they, you ask?
Writers, presumably - writers like Ian Kennedy Williams.
The UK-born author may have “technically retired”, but he’s also just released his first book since moving to Tasmania in 2009.
The author of plays, radio plays, short stories and novels started out as a writer in 1983 and still spends about 10 hours a week pondering prose in front of a laptop.
“You get good days and you get bad days but most days are in between the two,” Williams said.
“As you get better at it you also get a sense of what your voice is and your style as a writer.
“I find it easier to write now because I know where I’m going and I know how I want it to sound.”
Williams’ latest offering Leaving the Comfort Zone comes as the by-product of two decades of creativity and his ability to never give up on a story.
The Kings Meadows novellist said some of the short stories featured in the collection had started life as subplots to longer novels, while others were the result of decades of patient crafting and re-sculpting.
“You look at the title and think that these are all stories written to a theme or a premise but it’s probably more that writers have their own preoccupations and interests, and a lot of times it’s working subconsciously anyway.
“In many ways (the stories) all deal with people who leave their comfort zone looking for something but ultimately find that nothing really changes.
“The stories in here have been written over a period of about 20 years as well, so the oldest one is probably early 90s and the most recent was probably a year or so ago.”
With Leaving the Comfort Zone now on the shelves, Williams will turn his attention to reworking another story which has been in the works for several years.
“At the moment I’m rewriting a novel I wrote in Brisbane that didn’t work at the time so its been put aside for seven or eight years.
“My agent thought it was worth having another look at so that’s what I’m working on at the moment.
“I know what the core of this story is but it’s trying to get the right way of telling it.”
Leaving the Comfort Zone is available at Pertrach’s in Launceston and will be officially launched at Hobart Bookshop on September 7.