In fact, he's penned more than 20 books (11 of them in the last five years alone) including historical novels, travel and walking guides, plus short story and poetry works - but it's all "a labour of love". Each have been self published without turning any real income.

"It's a tough gig selling books these days," Mr McDougall said.

"I have probably sold a thousand [of my novels], although I've sold ... ten-thousand for my walking books."

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The retiree was even lucky enough to be awarded an artist's residency in Finland last year to work on his novels.

For several weeks he lived with more than a dozen artists from around the globe, in a converted primary school in the middle of the Finnish countryside.

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"We shared one car between the 15 of us," he said.

"Every second or third day we'd kind of head out to the various parts of the country and have a look."

So why write?

"When it comes to being an artist ... my advice is to people, 'don't do it' unless you can't help yourself," Mr McDougall laughed.

"Which is more or less what I am [doing]. But you've got to live with your afflictions."

His next book, Damn!, will be released on October 24. It's a pilgrim's spontaneous journey to Santiago to find poetic inspiration.

Most eBooks are under AU$10 and can be found at www.smashwords.com, or paperback can be bought on request.

When Mr McDougall isn't nestled in the Illawarra escarpment fiercely writing, he's taking photos. Some of his works are currently on exhibition at the Project Contemporary Artspace in Wollongong until October 13.

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