Calvin London - Starting a New Writing Adventure on Vocal

“Hello” to those who dropped by to read this story.

As the great Mick Jagger said in that classic song, "Sympathy for the Devil"-

"Please allow me to introduce myself"

The early days

When this song was a hit in 1967, I was a wee little tacker of just 12 years old, but at this younger age, I was already building my repertoire of future stories, having been at boarding school for a year. It was a rude awakening to life away from home.

Originally from Fleet, England, I moved to Australia with my parents when I was three. They were lured by the promise of great things in the 'land down under.' I was three; I could hardly say "No."

I have lived in Australia ever since, except for three years when I lived in the US (which is a whole story in itself).

I left the US because of the terror attacks on September 11, 2000.

My wife and I were living in a place called Medford, which was about midway between Philadelphia and New York, right in the action zone of the terrorist attacks.

September 11 was my first day at my second job in the US. The problem was that I was staying in a hotel in New Jersey, about two hours from where we lived. Because New Jersey was closed by Marshall law, I was separated from my wife for two weeks, and it was a stressful time.

I have lived in several places in Australia, moving mainly for work.

A Life of Ups and Downs

Most of my life has been in the pharmaceutical industry. After seven years of getting my qualifications, I taught pharmacy students for eight years while I did my Master of Science on those lovable animals koalas (which I will share some stories about on my Vocal journey).

Not having inflicted enough punishment on myself, I went on to do a PhD in sheep this time. (I have more stories to tell.) If you think academia and research are relaxing and full of nice people, think again; they are not.

I then moved into the pharma business in quality and compliance and executive management for 40 years. By now, you will have figured - I ama into a strong chicken!

A confirmed workaholic and, in the latter parts of my career, traveled internationally 60% of the year.

At one point, I would be in the US for one week, in France for another week, and then back in Australia for another week before doing it all again. It nearly killed me. You can read about my touch with death here.

It was no fun, despite what you hear about the joys of business travel.

Life Has Been a Box of Chocolates

As I look back, I realize I missed out on so many things in life, but I have many experiences to share.

Writing has always been a major part of my life.

I wrote many technical documents, Company Annual Reports, and technical documents for years. I have always written newsletters for work to motivate employees in the companies I worked for.

I loved helping people ‘see the light’ when it came to quality and compliance, and as a manager, mentoring was one of my favorite responsibilities. This trait has continued.

I semi-retired in 2019 and set up my consulting company, "The Compliance Concierge."

My passion for writing has continued with over 50 technical publications, and now my two blogs, “Ethics is Not a Dirty Word" and "Who Would Have Thunk It!" I started this year. The latter examines our world of weird and wonderful things.

I have tried to live my life by following three directives:

• ‘Never ask anyone to do anything you are not prepared to do yourself.’
• ‘When things seem tough, there is always someone else worse off.’
• ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you have always got.’

These have been tested many times in my life. Surviving cancer in my twenties, being abused at boarding school, and then being diagnosed with rare blood cancer in 2019 (just after I semi-retired), and having someone very near and dear to me diagnosed with severe mental issues.

I could go on, but it is not the point; I am not seeking sympathy.

I feel I have been given powerful life experiences as a tool to write with.

Exploring the Weird and Wonderful

I am now spending a lot more time writing in non-technical areas. I write for six different sites and hope to make many contributions to Vocal.

I have not discovered my true genre. If you follow my writing, you will see that I am passionate about animals and nature, ethics, and exploring the weird and wonderful.

Recently, I have also dabbled in poetry, which examines the beauty of the world around us. You can read these stories in the Poet community.

It probably stems from my days of writing original songs for a band I played for a while at University, and I am determined to explore poetry further.

High on my bucket list is to get into writing short story novels.

John Grisham and James Paterson are my heroes. Just as they focus on legal and police themes, respectively, I want to create suspense thrillers based on some of the horrors and fraud in the biotech/pharma industry.

I have just realized that there is so much I want to do; it is a good job that I do not work full-time.

I now live with my two little dogs, my best buddies, in a beautiful part of Australia. The Indian Ocean is right outside my front door, making it a perfect place to write, write, and write more.

I would love to have you along on my journey.

Thanks for reading my introduction, and nice to meet you (virtually).

Till next time,

Calvin