In 2007 at the age of 54, Steve gave up his career in corporate sales and followed his dream to become a writer and coach. He had studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) since the year 2000 with International Teaching Seminars of London and attained International Coach level and became a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) with accreditation at Practitioner, Master Practitioner and Coach levels. He began a Masters level degree course in Creative Writing at Loughborough University and graduated as Master of Arts in 2009.
In 2010 he began running The Writers’ Coaching courses at Leicester University’s, Richard Attenborough Centre.
In January 2012 Steve and his wife Mary launched Soar Valley Life Magazine bringing affordable advertising, community news and events publicity to the Greater Charnwood region in North Leicestershire. Soar Valley Life has gone from strength to strength and now has the largest circulation at 40,000 copies delivered to mainly owner-occupied houses of any single edition community or life style hard copy publication in Leicestershire.
Onion Therapy is the fifth book that Steve has played a significant role in bringing to publication and to market. The others are, in chronological order:
Time & Emotion – 2006 – ISBN 0-9552793-0-5 Steve’s anthology of poems about coming to terms with life after the loss of his wife in 2000
Betty’s Diaries– 2010 – ISBN 978-1-899820-99-3 The Diaries of Betty Hewes (Mary’s Aunt) telling of life and love in Leicestershire from 1944 to 2001
Betty’s Travel Journals– 2011 ISBN 978-1-907611-87-2 The Journals of Mary’s Aunt after she had retired and recorded thoughts and reflections on high days and holidays of more than 350 locations throughout Great Britain.
A Life On FireBill Ford’s Story – 2018 ISBN 978-1-9996345-9-9 The Biography of Bill Ford co-authored by Steve and Bill Ford. It tells the story of one of Leicestershire’s best loved and well-known businessmen.
Steve lives in Sileby, with his wife Mary, and when he is not running Soar Valley Life or helping folk get into print, he volunteers at the local Great Central Heritage Railway.
Steve’s next extra-curricular project is to combine his skills of writing, coaching and publishing and deliver that to a wider audience and create his own book The Writers’ Coach with a target date for publication of summer 2020.