Novelist Brian Langan has been scribbling stories since he was a keen student at Templeogue College

You could say I've lived a nomadic existence. I grew up in Rush, Co Dublin, but when I was 10 we moved over to Terenure and later to Ranelagh. Before I got married I lived in Stonybatter and now we're moving to Blanchardstown.

I spent my secondary years at Templeogue College and, yes, I think I liked it. As a child I was pretty shy and I didn't mix much in school. Most of my friends lived around Terenure, but we all went to different schools. Templeogue College was a good school, though, and there are a few teachers I have good memories of. My English teacher, Larry Dempsey - who taught me in fifth and sixth year - was very good in terms of encouraging my writing.

I started writing short stories when I was about 16. They were fairly juvenile and, mentally, I was always developing them into novels. But a novel was too much to take on in my teens.

I was fairly academic at school and particularly enjoyed English and maths. I wasn't great at studying though and only did what I needed to.

I always had it in my mind that I wanted to something in the arts. I liked writing and I loved music and cinema. So I went to UCD and did an arts degree in economics and French. After that I spent a year working in the campus bookshop in Belfield.

I then decided I wanted to study something different, something which I enjoyed. I opted for the UCD master's in film studies, a one-year course, which proved to be the most interesting thing I had ever done in terms of education.

I returned to the bookshop and worked there for three-and-a-half years. It was my first job and a good way to ease myself into the world of work.

By this time, I was finishing my first attempt at a novel, which I had started when I was 21. It's a novel that hasn't been published and I hope it never will be - in its present form at least.

I was also doing some freelance journalism and editorial work. As a result, I got a job with Oaktree Press and I'm here for the last two years, working as a copy editor.

This work is very different from writing. You're looking at other people's work, correcting English and querying errors.

I started writing Light in the Head in 1997. It's the story of a young boy who can't speak but who creates a world through his imagination.

It's hard to settle down to writing when you're working in a full-time job. It took me 18 months to write the book, which averages out at only 20 minutes per day.

I need to work on my time management - it's difficult to get the balance right and combine work, writing and family life.

Our son Christopher was born last July. The whole experience of becoming a father is a fantastic one and opens up a whole new perspective on life.

My novel deals with childbirth and what it's like to be a first-time parent. It's a case of life imitating art - although I did change some of it after Christopher was born.

Brian Langan, whose first novel, Light in the Head, is published by Poolbeg (£6.99), was in conversation with Yvonne Healy.