AN INSPIRATIONAL fiction author held a book-signing in the town centre last week.

Lance Greenfield showcased his two books, Eleven Miles and Knitting Can Walk!, at Coffee#1 on Friday, May 12.

The 61-year-old, of Charlton Road, selfpublished the books through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and Lulu.

Mr Greenfield wrote Eleven Miles in just over a month.

The great-grandfather-of-three said: “Eleven Miles took me 32 days to write but I was planning, plotting and defining the characters for about three years.

“Once I got everything planned out, I took part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I wrote 65,000 words in November and then I took an extra two days to write another 5,000.

"It felt great and then I had a pause.

“I really, really wanted to publish on my birthday so I had two weeks to review and revise it and that was in 2014.”

The book is about the amazing achievements of a Botswana girl who decides that she will walk 11 miles to the school every day for five years to gain her education.

He attempted to write Knitting Can Walk! the following November but got half-way through and decided it needed to be sharper, so it was not completed and published until February 2016.

It is about a disabled orphan girl in Hong Kong in the 70s whose nickname is Knitting.

Despite medical expert opinion that she will never walk, she learns to walk by her own determination and with the help of a British teenager.

Mr Greenfield, who works for an IT company, added: “I’ve always enjoyed reading and when people say ‘how can you write?’ my first piece of advice is to read a lot.

“I don’t think anyone can write well if they don’t read a lot.”

Half of the money from the book-signing went to the woman who inspired the first book, Boikanyo Phenyo, who funds a school bus in a town in Botswana to take children to and from school.

Mr Greenfield said four hours of sitting drinking coffee and chatting to customers was time well spent.

He added: “Although I only sold nine books, I met lots of interesting people and made some good new contacts.

"I look forward to more booksigning events in the future if I can find venues which are willing to host me.”

He expressed his gratitude to café manager, Matt Arnold, for allowing him to stage the event at the High Street coffee shop.

Mr Greenfield is now working on Eleven Years, a sequel to Eleven Miles.

Both books are available online in paperback and Kindle formats or they can be ordered through bookshops or local libraries.

For more information, visit lancegreenfield.wordpress.com