Biography
From when R.D, Valentine was a boy he loved the written English language. Growing up, television wasn’t part of the evening entertainment so it was either playing with his siblings or Tommy the family cat or finding other ways to occupy his time. That was when being creative through his imagination and putting words on paper that weren’t necessarily grammatically correct, but were an expression of his ideas took shape.
Sometimes it was just sitting at the dinner table writing about the events at primary school or tackling a subject given by his teacher, that allowed him to think about different situations, some that were funny and some sad, like when he came home from school and found his mother crying in his bedroom because she’d suffered physical abuse from his father. These moments were times when the only way to express how he felt was through writing about his emotions.
As he became older and enrolled in secondary education, the creative side grew. His English teacher showed special attention in him because he wrote imaginative essays that always led to an extra discussion with his teacher who tried to make him see the gift that was inside of him but needed nurturing.
R.D. Valentine tried his hand in acting and enrolled for the school play which was enjoyable, but his talent was in letting his sixth sense discover worlds, characters and even though ill formed at times, he was still developing his writing craft without structure, a frustration for his teacher who saw the gift but R.D. Valentine was preoccupied by other loves like Football, Cricket, Athletics and Rugby.
Joining college to further his education, the love for the English Language hadn’t dwindled. He was set a challenge by the creative writing teacher to write a short story about any topic of his choice. R.D. Valentine wrote a short story called, “Castles in the Sky.” This story was about a boy who magically went to a kingdom above the sky that was filled with different castles. There was the castle of greed, hate, the castle of love and many other castles. As the boy went from castle to castle each one was a different experience.
His creative writing teacher approached him and asked, ‘have you ever thought about becoming a writer?’ His response was simply, ‘no,’ and the conversation ended there. He didn’t realise that yet again someone had recognised his gift, but the awareness of the question didn’t resonate and it was just an excellent story without the pursuing of a writer yet to be born.
Years in different industries gave him valuable work experience, but it wasn’t until he was on a leadership programme that the question of the creative arts arose again. Part of the programme was discovering your mystery talents. One of the programme leads who was reviewing his results asked him, ‘your hidden talent is artistry, do you act, sing, write songs?’
R.D. Valentine replied, ‘I write songs, play the guitar and sing."
’The programme lead said, ’you should explore this to see what’s there.’
It wasn’t until two years later after sitting in his apartment and having a one on one with himself that an epiphany came upon him and he blurted out aloud, ‘I want to be a writer, I want to write novels.’
He got his computer and starting writing in a frantic manner about gang warfare. The story didn’t have a plot, characterisation or any thought to setting or dialogue, it was just an expression of thought, but it started his journey to becoming serious about writing and it was at this point that all those signals which he had ignored finally turned his head to acknowledge that a career in the corporate world wasn’t who he really was, but deep in his soul, writing had always been there. It needed a key moment to awaken his senses to continue the journey of imagination and creativity through the written word.
To hone his skills, he enrolled on a short story and novel writing course with the Writers Bureau working with Novelists of fiction and non-fiction to receive guidance, help, the skills and constructive criticism to produce the best novels possible. He still has a strong association with the Writers Bureau because improvement never stops and daily help from the right people makes him a better writer.
Ten years have been spent working on this art, short stories and novels for R.D. Valentine wants to be recognised as a serial writer of many novels that gives him an identity to a mass reading population who love the plot, the thrill and the rollercoaster of emotions that flare up as different parts of his stories are read.
Finally, R.D. Valentine wants to say thank you to all the readers who make the publishing industry what it is and there is no greater reward than knowing his books are being read on the train, at home, in a plane or in the park.
R.D. Valentine says thank you for reading my novels, this is not a right, it is an honour to share my gift with you the reader, and may all my books continue to give you a wonderful reading experience.
Sometimes it was just sitting at the dinner table writing about the events at primary school or tackling a subject given by his teacher, that allowed him to think about different situations, some that were funny and some sad, like when he came home from school and found his mother crying in his bedroom because she’d suffered physical abuse from his father. These moments were times when the only way to express how he felt was through writing about his emotions.
As he became older and enrolled in secondary education, the creative side grew. His English teacher showed special attention in him because he wrote imaginative essays that always led to an extra discussion with his teacher who tried to make him see the gift that was inside of him but needed nurturing.
R.D. Valentine tried his hand in acting and enrolled for the school play which was enjoyable, but his talent was in letting his sixth sense discover worlds, characters and even though ill formed at times, he was still developing his writing craft without structure, a frustration for his teacher who saw the gift but R.D. Valentine was preoccupied by other loves like Football, Cricket, Athletics and Rugby.
Joining college to further his education, the love for the English Language hadn’t dwindled. He was set a challenge by the creative writing teacher to write a short story about any topic of his choice. R.D. Valentine wrote a short story called, “Castles in the Sky.” This story was about a boy who magically went to a kingdom above the sky that was filled with different castles. There was the castle of greed, hate, the castle of love and many other castles. As the boy went from castle to castle each one was a different experience.
His creative writing teacher approached him and asked, ‘have you ever thought about becoming a writer?’ His response was simply, ‘no,’ and the conversation ended there. He didn’t realise that yet again someone had recognised his gift, but the awareness of the question didn’t resonate and it was just an excellent story without the pursuing of a writer yet to be born.
Years in different industries gave him valuable work experience, but it wasn’t until he was on a leadership programme that the question of the creative arts arose again. Part of the programme was discovering your mystery talents. One of the programme leads who was reviewing his results asked him, ‘your hidden talent is artistry, do you act, sing, write songs?’
R.D. Valentine replied, ‘I write songs, play the guitar and sing."
’The programme lead said, ’you should explore this to see what’s there.’
It wasn’t until two years later after sitting in his apartment and having a one on one with himself that an epiphany came upon him and he blurted out aloud, ‘I want to be a writer, I want to write novels.’
He got his computer and starting writing in a frantic manner about gang warfare. The story didn’t have a plot, characterisation or any thought to setting or dialogue, it was just an expression of thought, but it started his journey to becoming serious about writing and it was at this point that all those signals which he had ignored finally turned his head to acknowledge that a career in the corporate world wasn’t who he really was, but deep in his soul, writing had always been there. It needed a key moment to awaken his senses to continue the journey of imagination and creativity through the written word.
To hone his skills, he enrolled on a short story and novel writing course with the Writers Bureau working with Novelists of fiction and non-fiction to receive guidance, help, the skills and constructive criticism to produce the best novels possible. He still has a strong association with the Writers Bureau because improvement never stops and daily help from the right people makes him a better writer.
Ten years have been spent working on this art, short stories and novels for R.D. Valentine wants to be recognised as a serial writer of many novels that gives him an identity to a mass reading population who love the plot, the thrill and the rollercoaster of emotions that flare up as different parts of his stories are read.
Finally, R.D. Valentine wants to say thank you to all the readers who make the publishing industry what it is and there is no greater reward than knowing his books are being read on the train, at home, in a plane or in the park.
R.D. Valentine says thank you for reading my novels, this is not a right, it is an honour to share my gift with you the reader, and may all my books continue to give you a wonderful reading experience.