Born and raised to the great height of 6' 3" in County Durham, Anthony Lund still lives and works in his home town just like he has for the last 25 years.

At the age of 7 he was told he should see a school psychiatrist to help overcome his irrational need to run around the corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and to quell his overactive imagination. Thankfully it never happened, and was seen to be nothing but bullshit. Every healthy child of 7 should run around corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and should be allowed to enact their youthful fantasies of dragons, chases and intergallactic confrontation. It is when they still do it at the age of 24 that some thought to medical help should be sought.

After leaving school with a large handful of GCSEs, wrapped neatly in an elastic band to be thrown in a box and buried later, Anthony went on to avoid college in favour of doing some "real work". On becoming employed it turned out that in a good job there was no such thing as "real work". "Real work" consists of playing the game, getting the work done in the shortest time to allow more time for fooling around, and including the word fuck in as many conversations as possible.

After a short stint in a travel agency, which ended in mystery, backstabbing, a set-up worth of a Taggart baddie, and a bout of 3 year depression, Anthony found out two things. First, a three year stint of depression gave ample opportunity to sit down and write for eight or nine hours a day. As he had wanted to be an author since the age of 12, the chance was too good to miss. After three years, he had two complete pieces of shite under the guise of novels, 165 ideas for other stories, a better understanding of how to write a good novel rather than a bad one, and a serious dose of writers cramp.

In 2003, Anthony began "real work" again. As well as giving him more cash than the 6p a week the government had been paying him for the last 3 years, it led him to encounter the person who would become a best friend, constant source of inspiration, and had the most infectious personality ever seen on the right side of insanity. It also offered some unexected opportunities. There was a monthly article in the company newsletter, a piece that was abstract to say the least, and some promotional work that involved poster campaigns, leaflet designs and general arty stuff.

Having read the books of Stephen King and James Herbert since the age of 12, a chance encounter with "Cujo" being the first, the horror genre became an immediate subject of choice. Although there were other writers and genres to be explored, they all seemed too mundane and too boring (later, the writer in him would come to realize that apart from every 70th page, horror novels were no different).

Gradually, having exhausted the back catalogue of most popular horror writers, Anthony moved onto the close relative, the Crime novel. Dealing with the dark nature of the human mind rather than that of the supernatural, Crime novels appealed almost as strongly as those of demons and ghosts. Now, Anthony has a personal library of over 800 books in every genre from humour to horror to fantasy to thriller.          

Hobbies include cinema, rock music, playing guitar (almost) and writing songs and slumping in front of the TV. His true TV loves are every crime drama from "Wire in the Blood" to "Midsommer Murders", every comedy from "Only Fools and Horses" to "The Simpsons", and not so secretly "Eastenders".

His heroes are few and far between, but those given honourable mention are working class hero Bruce Springsteen, rocker Meat Loaf and his long term writer Jim Steinman, and Billy Connolly - no man can make him laugh more.

He is also a Sunderland supporter for his sins.

Having avoided the psychologist once, it was only fitting that Anthony should go onto study the subject earning a Diploma in Psychology, and currently studying towards a higher level Diploma in both Psychology & Psychoanalysis and Criminal & Forensic  Psychology. The lunatics are truely taking over the asylum.

Anthony also has something of an acquired taste in some items. His wide array of oddities include five Grim Reapers, two Homer Simpsons, a collection of Roland Rat soft toys and the life-sized head of a gremlin - all to the despair of his girl-friend, who somehow accepts his peculiarities without batting an eyelid.

Anthony is now venturing into the world of publishing. His first novel, A Christmas Carol Retold, is out now.