Welcome!
Perhaps first and foremost I consider myself a writer of fiction. I’m fascinated by how people relate to their histories, the decisions they take, the relationships they have. Our past informs our present and steers our future — whether we like it or not.
Of course these days it can be hard to be ‘just one thing’, especially if your experience covers multiple writing-related genres and interests. And therefore — in order to be true to myself and honest with you — I also need to confess that I am a sometime poet, creative writing mentor, and Indie Publisher. Perhaps in the end that makes me ‘a master of none’, but it’s who I am. Please don’t judge me too harshly!
Writing until the light goes out is dedicated to sharing my total writing journey with you - which, let’s be honest, is my attempt to out-run Death…
My site is split into six sections:
“The writing life” - my efforts to live the life of a writer
“The craft of writing” - thoughts on the practice of writing
“Work-in-progress” - where I share new work
“Fiction” - the home for serialisations of novels or novellas
“Short stories” - where I post entire stories
“Poetry” - both individual pieces and extracts from collections
Premium subscribers get early access to some material, full access to premium material (such as serialised work), the opportunity to contribute to initiatives, and access to the full archive.
General subscribers get access to all free material.
Praise for my work:
“Ian Gouge has written a delightful novel that reminded me of the writing style of Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway. I’m my opinion this novel deserves to be up there with these literary greats.” - for 17 Alma Road
“this honest exploration of human nature helped me understand myself better” - for Once Significant Others
“Sally Rooney meets Henry James” - also for Once Significant Others
“My new year started with reading Ian’s novel, At Maunston Quay, and it was perfect. I had forgotten that for the last two years I have bounced between quarantined home life and fitful re-entries into social settings. Ian’s book grounded me with slow, gentle reminders that our connections with ourselves, our environment, and each other can heal in miraculous ways. Ian, thank you for this gift! You made me cry on the subway!” - for At Maunston Quay
It’s already been a hell of a ride…
Born as an only child into an impoverished existence, I suppose there were several ways my life could have turned out, few of them pretty. By the time I left school at 16 I had lived in seventeen different places, been homeless three times…
Don’t ask me where my love of writing came from (certainly not the rest of my family), but it has always been there. I went back to college at eighteen and then off to University, and in English literature and creative writing I found my happy place.
Fed-up with being poor, I gave up my love for literature to earn some money. Yes, it meant that subsequently I was always comfortable enough, but on reflection the price paid was too high: nearly forty years in an industry for which I now care little. Indeed, not just the industry but the whole money- and profit-driven commerciality of the workaday world.
Yet having said that, my 'professional life’ did give me a lot in return. I have to say that. I’ve travelled all over the world, spent periods living in Switzerland and Singapore. And now? A nice house and enough money in the bank to live.
And time to write.
For the last ten years or so I have been trying to make up for those lost years; to claw back all those things that are impossible to salvage: the novels I never wrote, the poems that never saw the light of day. My being prolific is driven by that, the desire to get as much of ‘me’ down on paper - and my world view I suppose - while I can.
Call it an exorcism if you like, but that is what now drives me and my writing. That and the desire to share, to hold up a mirror - and in doing so perhaps to move or inspire just a little…
If you enjoy my writing, why not subscribe to Writing until the light goes out? I’d love to share my journey with you!
