Allan Hands
Who am I?
My pen name is cut and pasted from the names of my grandfathers, Allan McPherson and Claude Hands. I only remember Allan as a bag of lollies suspended under my nose every time we came calling. Claude I remember rather better since he often stayed with us just to get away from his second wife. So I owe ‘Allan‘ to a wonderful bag of lollies, and ‘Hands‘ to a wicked step-grandmother, you could say. Otherwise it’s simply an easy handle on my books. If you want my actual name, buy one of my books. I’m listed as the owner of the copyright.
What can I say about myself? I am now 66 years old. I graduated from university as a Bachelor of Arts, with a graduate diploma in education. I worked as a manual labourer for about 12 years, including as a taxi driver, delivery driver, farm labourer, cleaner and council labourer. I was a school teacher for the rest of my working life. I never got married, I never had children, and I can’t say I regret it. Best of all is to be happily married and loved by one’s children, if they have good taste. Otherwise stick to singularity, for everyone’s peace of mind. I now spend my days studying academic subjects, reading, researching, messing about on four acres and writing. I live in Oz and consider myself lucky to have enjoyed good health in a prosperous country that has never been confronted with any existential crises in my lifetime. We should all be so lucky!
Mirrored Sword Part One is dedicated to my mother, Judith, and Part Two is dedicated to my father, Colin. Left is a photo of them before their marriage. Right is a picture of her parents, Claude and Marion Hands. My parents divorced when I was 21 yo, and Marion died prematurely when my mother was only 14 yo. Such is the history of families, always with a pinch of sadness.
Above is my only video of Judith. She is attending a grandchild’s wedding. The voice of the cameraman belongs to one of her sons-in-law, the lady in the background is the sister of her other son-in-law, and the young man is one of her grandsons.
Mirrored Sword is my first venture into story writing. I write great books—it’s my mission—and at least 2 more stories will follow, if I have time. Below is an example of a medieval clock, which typically lost maybe 20 minutes every day. Before you sneer at old technologies, just remember that’s about 99% accurate. You’d settle for that score as a performance standard in your job, wouldn’t you? Sixty-five years old is like that, so never say I’m past it.
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