Meet Steve Braker- Author

Hi, thanks for passing by my website. Here’s a little about me.

I have lived in Kenya, East Africa, since 2000. I arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as a father of four at the grand old age of thirty-five. I had big dreams back then of being rich and famous. I didn’t have a clue about life in Africa. All I knew was that my kids were growing up in one of the busiest cities on earth and, in my opinion, needed some time to see the world before it gobbled them up. I chose Kenya because it is stable, and my wife comes from Kisumu. However, after traveling around for some time, we decided on Mombasa.

This was not my first adventure in a new country. As a twenty-one-year-old, I packed my bags and headed to the Far East. This was way back in the mists of time, long before the internet had become a thing! Yes, I am older than Google! I arrived in Bangkok, rubbed shoulders with Vietnam Veterans, and then traveled to the Golden Triangle and the Cambodian Border. After exhausting Thailand, I wandered along the peninsula into Malaysia and Singapore, then crossed to Borneo and climbed Mount Kinabalu.

On my way home, about a year later, I decided to go and see the Taj Mahal and spent another few months traveling around India. So, I was no stranger to travel and wanted my growing children to have a similar wanderlust.

When I arrived in Kenya, I was not a backpacker, and I had four young responsibilities to think of. I had to learn Swahili and Jalou, my wife’s language, and, most importantly, find gainful employment.

We were fortunate to find a house on a creek near Mtwapa; you might remember this name from my second book, “African Paradise.” Our house was unfurnished; we had to find “fundis” who would chop down some coconut palms and make us a sofa right in the living room! Life was good; the water was from a well in the garden, and we went to sleep listening to the crickets’ chirp and the frogs’ croak!
The local supermarket was two hours away, but we could buy most of what we needed from the local villages around us. We were ‘Living the dream,’ as Brody would say

After setting up home, my employment search became urgent. A few miles further along Mtwappa Creek, I noticed a run-down marina. I wore my best shorts and T-shirt and went along to meet the owner. As it turned out, he was an old white guy thinking of retiring and wanting to rent the place for the next ten years. We shook hands and drank beer in the local bar to seal the deal.

I took over the next day; it was a real eye-opener. For the first six months, I was at the mercy of the employees and customers alike. I lost so much money that I thought I would have to pack up and head back to the U.K.

But my saving grace was learning Kiswahili. I found a teacher in Old Town, Mombasa, and visited him daily for six months. I was immersed in the language, so I learned it very quickly. I started turning things around as soon as I knew what was being said.

I began doing specialized work on wooden dhows that ply the coast of Kenya and Tanzania. I employed fundis from Lamu and Somalia to do the job. I learned to sail and repair the dhows with the fundis’ basic tools.

There is no electricity along Kenya’s coast, especially where the dhows are repaired, so all the fundis worked with tools that looked like they had been used to build the ark!

As soon as we settled, we decided to see every corner of Kenya. We often packed up the old 110 Landrover I had bought off a local missionary and headed into the game parks for a camping weekend. Or we would jump on my boat, head for Shimoni on the border with Tanzania, and spend the weekend in the marine part. Unfortunately, this was before mobile phones were a thing; consequently, not everything was snapped up in a photo.

Like Brody, I love the water and spend every free moment snorkeling, diving, or fishing along the coast. I also became a PADI open-water dive instructor to earn extra cash by running dive courses at local hotels.

In time, I expanded my business to repair fiberglass boats and engines. This was one of the happiest times of my life. I could be with my kids most of the time and do what I loved. I even bought an old dhow and renovated it myself. Then, in 2008, I sailed the dhow with a friend to Lamu, a 150-mile journey in the open ocean, but that’s another story!

Ten years flew past. My children grew up to be adults and wanted to return to the UK for university. Suddenly, I was alone. I decided I wanted more freedom, so I sold the marina. This is when writing action thrillers struck me as something I would love to do. I was an English teacher in Bangkok and owned my school in Leicester Square, London, teaching English to international students, so my grammar was pretty good. I also wrote some short action thrillers as the kids were growing up.

After sitting in many bars for many hours, William Brody was born. I decided to intertwine my adventures with a fictional character who could have their adventures along the coast. I wanted Brody to be in search of freedom, something I value very highly. I gave him some friends who were a mixture of some of the wonderful people I had met since I had arrived in East Africa. Then, I combined all that with my love of Clive Cussler’s books.

My first book, African Slaver, took about six months; it was a labor of love and became my intro to the series. My grammar and English were good, but I had never learned storytelling. When I finished African Slaver, I handed it to my wife and said, “Let me know what you think?” She came back about two hours later with a raft of ideas. In her opinion, I had missed about three chapters!

So, I sat down again and rewrote African Slaver. Since then, I have learned to tell a much more involved story, and my books usually end up being about 100k words. But we all must start somewhere.
That was back in 2016. Since then, I have been on an incredible journey learning the art of writing as an indie author, internet marketing, and all that goes along with it.

I can tell you I have had ups and downs, and I have the scars to prove it. But it has been a wonderful journey of life, extending my already adventurous life, and I love it.

I genuinely hope my love of this continent comes out in my books. I try to show the people that I know them and live with them. I try to explain life at sea as it is not in a romanticized way but true to my memory. I have sailed the Indian Ocean for weeks on dhows and sailing boats. I no longer teach students how to dive, but I still spend much time attached to a dive tank, looking at the beautiful creatures below the ocean.

I hope you enjoy my William Brody Action Series. If you want to chat, email me at [email protected], and I will reply immediately.