What is one of your favorite things about writing?
I just love words! The pleasure of changing one word for another until you are conveying the exact feeling/situation/character you are trying to get across to the reader is beyond compare!
When you’re brainstorming for a new story, what usually comes first for you, the plot or the characters?
The characters and the place. The place needs to be atmospheric and a bit exotic – India, Egypt etc… – the characters must be strong and believable, and once this is in place the plot tends to suggest itself.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Definitely a plotter! I tried being a pantser once and wrote myself into a corner it was just impossible to escape from. Had to start all over again.
When you’re writing, who is more in control, you or your characters?
Mostly me, but characters can, and often do, take the story in a direction I hadn’t necessarily anticipated.
Can you write sex scenes at any time or do you have to be “in the mood?”
I tend to leave them at the bedroom door where possible!
What do you like best about writing?
Making a whole world, and people come alive. It’s like making a great discovery, not quite splitting the atom but inventing something totally new.
What is the most difficult thing about writing?
The promotion after the book’s published. So hard when all you want to do is write.
What is one of your favorite ways to learn about your characters?
I talk to them, Pretend they’re sat in a chair opposite me and give them the third degree.
What do you feel are some of the pros and cons of electronic publishing (instead of traditional print format)?
Pros: keeps the cost down so books become available to a wider audience. Cons: many people are resistant to ebooks, if they can’t have a paper copy they won’t buy.
Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
Often from my own life! Also TV stories, other books, newspaper articles – all good places to pick up ideas.
What do you like best about writing menage?
Don’t know what it is!
What are your favorite research resources?
Google and libraries for facts, trips abroad to get the feel of places I’m writing about.
What usually comes first for you, characters or plot?
See above.
Do you find it harder to write novels or short stories?
Short stories. So difficult!
Would you tell us about your latest release?
A Hundred Hands tells the story of a woman who runs away to India, and finds love working amongst the street children of Kolkata, India.
What are you working on now?
Oppression – a novel about the oppression of a forced marriage in Egypt, and also a woman in England who’s oppressed by a controlling husband.
Do you have an excerpt from your latest release you would like to share?
Excerpt
‘Can you take me here?’ She showed the address written on the paper napkin to the tuk tuk driver. He did the Indian nodding thing, head swaying between yes and no. She clambered in, made herself as comfortable as it is possible to be on a metal seat covered with a cloth, and gripped the upright pole. Just ahead of them a bus pulled in and began to gush passengers like a punctured blood vessel. She sat there, swatting away flies and enduring the stares of Indian men who stopped and pushed their heads into the vehicle for a better look. There were so many of them, as one group moved away another took its place and fear gave ways to feelings of violation then plain fury.
The driver shouted at the men, less for her sake she felt than for the fares he was losing, but the crowd started to melt away and they were able to drive off. They jolted down narrow alleys, bouncing in and out of potholes with bone-jarring regularity. Bushes and small trees sprouted from buildings whose stone walls crumbled like stale cake, and on every corner loomed a mountain of stinking, festering rubbish. She tried to keep her breathing shallow as they lurched along, until the driver turned down a pitted lane and came to an abrupt halt.
A long, low bungalow which had maybe once been white. Blue shutters, peeling paint and, in front, a wide, dusty yard. There were no signs of life. Polly waited a moment as the tuk tuk drove away then, plucking up her courage, knocked on the open door. She could see into a large square hall with a stone floor. Two rattan chairs flanked a low table on which an old tin containing marigolds stood in a pool of dropped petals. She hear a sound like the hissing of a snake then a young girl appeared sweeping the floor with a bunch of twigs. She looked up, startled, as Polly knocked again.
‘I’ve come to see Finlay.’
‘Uncle not here.’
‘Not here?’ The day that had seemed so full of promise grew dark. ‘Am I in the right place?’ She showed the paper napkin.
The girl nodded, wrapping her arms around herself, watching Polly with huge eyes.
‘Can I leave a message?’
Her expression was blank as she shook her head and Polly walked away, tears of frustration and disappointment not far away. He said he was always here, he said come any time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LZ03JQZ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ03JQZ
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/669126
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-hundred-hands/id1161101503?mt=11
https://store.kobobooks.com/search?Query=9781370663460
Would you tell us about yourself?
I think I became a reader before I could walk. While other people had childhood memories, I amassed a vocabulary. I was born into a service family and at the tender age of seven found myself on the Dunera, a troopship, sailing for a three year posting to Singapore. So began a lifetime of wandering – and fifteen different schools. Teen years living in Cyprus, before partition, when the country was swarming with handsome UN soldiers, and then marriage to a Civil Engineer who whisked me away to the Arabian Gulf.
Most of the following years were spent as a single parent with an employment history which ranged from the British Embassy in Bahrain to a goods picker, complete with steel toe-capped boots, in an Argos warehouse. In between I earned my keep as a cashier in Barclays, a radio presenter and a café proprietor on the sea front in Penzance. All good material for an author!
I always enjoyed writing and kept a journal whenever I travelled abroad, but it wasn’t until I retired I had the chance to write a book. My first novel Outcast was published as an ebook in March 2016 by Tirgearr – after 32 rejections! This has been followed by A Hundred Hands. Both books are set in India and are based on the diaries I kept when I did voluntary work one winter, teaching English to street children in Kolkata.
What are your favorite genres to read and write?
Travel, suspense, psychological drama, romance.
Where can we visit you online?
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do?
Read – most of the time! – and travel.
How long have you been writing?
Since I was a child, but seriously writing for just over three years.
To you what makes a great romance hero?
Rhett Butler.
To you what makes a great romance heroine?
Scarlett O’Hara
Do you have any particular writing habits? (Listening to music, best time of day to write, etc.)
I can write any time but must have silence.
Where would you go on your dream vacation?
India is my favourite place in the whole world. On my dream vacation I might do it in a bit more comfort than my usual budget travel.
What is your favorite season?
Spring because I’m always hoping that this year summer will be long and hot
What book are you currently reading?
Patrick Gale: Rough Music,
What is the last movie you watched?
Mrs. Doubtfire
What is your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate.
Do you have any pets?
No
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