BARRY W METCALF Author Writer Novelist

I was born in 1943 to a working class family with middle class aspirations. I began writing stories while at school, finally venturing into novels when I retired from teaching in 1997. The result was a series of mystery/thriller novels set in Australia and featuring two unorthodox investigators who work for the fictional Strange & Obscure Cases (SOC) Unit, an autonomous offshoot of ASIO.

Encouraged by positive feedback, the stories flow freely and usually reflect my bizarre sense of reality and weird humour. When the muse's ego is bruised, I bide my time, reworking old short stories into Sci-Fi novels and waiting for new ideas to evolve. The longest time I've gone without writing anything new has been eighteen months, but when the drought broke, the words flowed thick and fast.

Three times married with four children, I live in Morwell, Victoria, Australia.