A MERLINS Bridge writer hopes to turn personal pain in to literary gain, with the publication of a short story based on a difficult time in his life.

Father-of-three Luke Swaine, 42, started to write ‘A Brighton Tale’ almost a decade ago, when he lived in the East Sussex city. He moved to Pembrokeshire to be near his children.

“It started as a little bit of therapy, after two difficult, seven-year-long relationships,” said Luke. “Writing it was very cathartic. It’s a metaphor of what I went through. It was supposed to end up at the bottom of my sock draw, but my friend, Gavin Davies – writer and researcher for The Paranormal Chronicles - persuaded me to try and do something with it.”

The 32-page offering tells the story of Rob, a single father struggling to bring up his son and manage a business, while dealing with his own mental health issues. He lives with his wife, Becca, and readers need to decide if she is a figment of his imagination, or if she is there in a paranormal form.

“The story is essentially fiction, but there’s a lot of fact in there too,” Luke explained. “I’ve lost touch with a lot of people I knew in Brighton, but perhaps they will recognise themselves in the story and get in contact.”

Luke feels writing the story helped him grow as a person, and made him stronger.

“I’m 100% fine now,” he said. “I’m where I should be and I have a partner who helped me edit the story. I think she’s what I was looking for, when I was writing the story all that time ago.”

Luke has set up a Facebook page – Brighton Tales – to advertise his book and to share information about the quirky seaside destination. His story is available on Amazon, with a free Kindle download.