"Wake up and smell the reality": the title of this book strikes a chord immediately and tells all about your vision in a few words. Explain what you personally wanted to say with it.
Fox: The key message of ‘Wake up and Smell the Reality’ is that you have the ability within you to do something that will make a difference in your life. One of the things I have come to realise in life is that people tend to let life just happen to them, without ever stepping back and taking the time to observe what is happening and where their life is going.

The book is written to make people stop and think about where their life is heading on the present course. It is not for me to tell people how they should live their lives but I write to prompt or provoke thought and provide ideas that can make a real difference if someone really incorporates them into their lives.

I like to think of my writing as providing tools. The ideas and thoughts that are presented are pointers, or guides to make the reader think about what is going on with them and their lives. It is by changing their thinking that their lives will actually start to change.

You often say in your book that you read several self-help books. What do you think about them?
Fox: I read a lot of books, listened to tapes, went to seminars and the one thing that I found with most of them is that they make you expect that if you follow the steps provided there is no reason why you should not be very successful in a short space of time. The problem with this is that it leads to failure and rather than be helpful it actually causes a problem with self-esteem.

I am not saying this is true for all of them and I am not saying that they do not have any good points about them. There are many good points and many things that will make a difference, but the over-riding thing is that they are not based in reality and they are not aimed at the ordinary person on the street who is simply trying to make things better for themselves.

What’s your personal experience? How did you realise you needed to change something in your life and what?
Fox: There have been a few times in my life that I have made major changes in several different areas. Firstly when I was 20, I was working as a fork-lift driver and was generally going nowhere, but I realised that I was bored and that there must be more to life than doing this forever. I left my job and did a course in computer programming. This took me into a completely different environment that was filled with potential and excitement.

A few years ago I decided to leave that life behind me. It was a major choice to make, but it was only when I sat back and looked at what was going on around me that I realised that I was not happy with the way things were. I am not suggesting that people need to make such drastic changes, but for me this is what seemed right at the time.

Wake Up is based on the ideas and thinking that enabled me to firstly wake up and see what my life was like and secondly that I did have choices and options and there were steps I could take to make life better for myself.

How did you personally achieve that?
Fox: One of the things I have always focused on is having control over my life and the things that I do. I have never been one to shy away from doing the hard stuff to get what I want. Writing this book is an example of that. It takes a lot of discipline to take the time to write a book like this.

Once I took the time to really look at what was going on, it was a bit like taking off foggy glasses and seeing things clearly. My life had sort of just rolled along with me as an observer and although there was nothing overly bad about it, it just wasn’t working for me so I started making choices and doing the things that I needed to do to get it to start working for me.

Nothing happens over night, and it takes time and patience to achieve anything. Not all things are achievable; I am real about who I am, where I am and what options are open to me.

I wrote ‘Wake Up and Smell the Reality’, and that was when I started changing things about myself and my life to follow the path that I wanted to follow.

Is there a particular "climax" in your life, a moment of epiphany when you realised what exactly you need to improve your life?
Fox: That is not an easy question to answer as such. There was no religious type of awakening; it is something that evolved over time.
The thing with life is that there is no one point, because life is made up of so many different overlapping parts. The ideas and thoughts in the book have evolved and grown over a number of years. The ideas and concepts themselves are not new, they are not some kind of way out thinking; they are good, simple and honest.

You always say you love clichés, what do you exactly love about them?
Fox: The thing that I love about clichés is that they often contain a very powerful truth. At the same time they are easy to remember and can serve as simple reminders. The down side is that people do not give them the respect that they deserve and will often dismiss them without thinking about them.

Part of the main thrust of the book is to start thinking about what is going on in your life and around you. A great way to do this is to use a cliché that we hear all the time but never actually think deeply about. This book uses clichés to trigger thought. Clichés are simple, short, to the point and get a very powerful truth across if someone actually thinks about what they are saying.

Is your book addressed to any particular type of reader?
Fox: I have written my book in such a way that anyone could understand it and could read it easily and effortlessly. I write so as to make it seem as though it is a conversation, rather that a written instruction or lecture.

It is mainly written this way because I was aiming it at real people in the real world. If you look at life coaching and self-help books they are typically aimed at people who are well educated and can afford to spend money, it is the people on the street that really need the help to make things better for themselves.

It is written to target those that are not familiar with self-help and the jargon and lingo that go with it, and it is written so that whoever reads it will get something from it.

I wrote it to be easy to read, easy to understand and easy to apply to every day life and at the very least give the reader something to seriously think about.

Is this the first book you published and are you planning to write any other book? Fox: It was the first book that I wrote, however I have since written two other books and several booklets.

The second book is a view on parenting and it is called ‘Creating Adults NOT raising Children’. It has been published by Pneuma Springs.
This is aimed at parents and once again it is no so much a manual of do’s and don’ts, it is a collection of ideas and thoughts designed to offer some help to parents so they can raise their children to be responsible adults.

The third book is called ‘You do not need bruises to be abused’. It is currently being published by Pneuma Springs.
This is a book that looks at domestic abuse. It looks at it in its many different forms and offers help and guidance to everyone involved; including the victim, the abuser and those on the outside who want to understand and help someone stuck in this situation.

There are also a number of free booklets are available to download from my website www.smellthereality.com