A TEACHER turned author has used his extra spare time in lockdown to finish work on his second novel.

Mile End resident Ian Hornett has just published Quarton: The Coding, a follow up to his teen sci-fi debut Quarton: The Bridge.

The book is now available via Amazon and will be for sale in Red Lion Books, in Colchester High Street, once the store reopens.

Mr Hornett, who spent ten years at Gosbecks Primary School before becoming a supply teacher, is now hard at work on the third and final part of the trilogy.

He said: "I enjoy the writing side most of all but realise I need to do more on the business side.

"I am more organised with the release of the book this time round and am advertising on Amazon and Facebook, for example.

"This side of being an author is a steep learning curve and I’ve probably spent too much time writing and not enough time trying to market my books."

Mr Hornett said the lockdown had provided a perfect opportunity for any aspiring authors to give writing a go and he has been trying to inspire the next generation of authors himself.

He said: "If people have spare time, I would encourage anyone to have a go at writing. It is very rewarding and a great way to pass an hour or two.

"I’ve been lucky to go into quite a few local schools to do short inspiration for writing workshops and my message there has been to write for pleasure.

"Don’t let worries about punctuation, spelling etc stop you from getting ideas down, those things can be sorted out later."

Visit ianhornett.com to find out more.