Simon Hawkins is an award-winning songwriter/producer and Amazon Best Selling author, based on the south coast of England. His passion for music goes back to when he started playing the organ at his village church at the age of 12. For many years he combined his writing with an international career, which took him and his family around the world. In 2004, Simon became a full time songwriter and was quickly snapped up by Universal Music Publishing in Nashville (Brentwood Benson Music Publishing/Universal CMG), where he now has some 200 songs in his catalogue. Simon’s songs have been recorded by Vince Gill and Sheri Easter (‘Livin’ in the Rain), American Idol finalist Mandisa (‘Truth About Me’), Abandon (‘Known’), Avalon (‘Destined’), Gold City ('Never Too Broken') and many others in a range of genres. ‘Livin’ in the Rain’ reached #2 on the SOGO charts and was long-listed for a GRAMMY. In 2012 Mandisa’s album ‘What If We Were Real’ – which included ‘Truth About Me’ – was nominated for a GRAMMY. 'Never Too Broken' reached #1 on the SOGO charts in Autumn 2014. Simon also received a Dove nomination for the musical ‘LifeSong: The Musical’ written with Sue C Smith. In late 2014 Simon wrote the modern hymn ‘He Is God’ which won the Integrity Music/www.weareworship.com "Search for a Hymn 2015" competition, which was recorded in July and released in October 2015. Simon is on the faculty of WAJ, an annual conference based in St Louis, Missouri, which aims to equip and inspire Christian songwriters.In May 2016, Simon's book "Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics" was published and immediately became an Amazon Best Seller in both the U.S. and the U.K. For more information go to http://www.songmapsbook.com