World-building is so important in a good novel in my opinion. Because I love reading books that make locations characters in their own right, I wanted to make sure I wrote a book that did the same. I also knew I wanted to write a crime novel with an LGBT theme from the offset in my…
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The Dark Side of Social Media in THE OTHER TWIN
Something a little different today … Here’s an interview I did with the awesomely prolific Rachel Amphlett, author of the Kay Hunter Series (amongst others!). Make sure you check her books out. Over to you, Rachel! 1) Like me, you’re a huge fan of thrillers. What attracted you to writing in the crime/thriller genre? Was…
Continue ReadingMy Loves And Hates In The Writing Process
1) Are you a plotter or pantser? I’m a trained screenwriter and work as a script editor now, so spend all day with screenplays. On this basis, I have to be a plotter – I don’t know any different! I get everything done a LOT quicker if I know what actually needs doing. In my…
Continue ReadingTop 10 Things That Inspire Me As An Author
You can see more of my fave things that inspire me, HERE. One question writers get asked ALL THE TIME is ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ My answer is always, ‘EVERYWHERE!’ 😀 However, there *are* things in my day-to-day life that inspire me indirectly … From places to food, I find living a relaxed life…
Continue ReadingThe ‘Best of’ Everything (According To Me)
When Vicki from Off The Shelf Books challenged me recently to come up with my ‘best of’ favourites for everything from authors to snacks, it’s fair to say I struggled a little picking just one! Chew on these for size … Here’s my fave: … author I can have only one?? Blimey. I love most…
Continue ReadingBEST OF 3: Awesome diverse characters of all time
As a script editor for movies and short film, I noticed a long time ago there’s a kind of homogenisation of characters in stories. Too often, stories are white, male, heterosexual and abilitity-centric, marginalising all others as being representative of ‘issues’. It’s for this reason I wrote my latest non-fiction book, Writing Diverse Characters In…
Continue ReadingTop 18 Questions On What Makes Me A Writer
People always ask me WHERE I get my ideas from, or even WHY I became a writer … So I thought I’d round up some of my thoughts on this for a post! Many thanks to Katherine at Bibliophile Book Club for these thought-provoking questions and for hosting me over at her site recently as…
Continue ReadingTop 5 Brilliant Books Set In Brighton
My crime debut, The Other Twin, is set in Brighton, UK. I grew up in a seaside town myself, plus Brighton is perhaps best known for its LGBT community (a key theme in the book), so I wanted to bring this place to life in my writing … So I looked to how others had…
Continue ReadingBEST OF 3: My Inspiring Secret Library
When someone asks you which books have influenced you, it’s very easy to fall into the ‘expected’ answers … Often because they’re true! It’s no secret how much I loved Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, especially as it prompted me to give crime writing a whirl myself. So when Cafe Thinking asked me to name 3…
Continue ReadingTop 5 Twisted Sister Stories To Creep You Out
This post originally appeared at Book Review Café. Read the original post, HERE. I read a LOT of books involving sisters for my research for my crime debut, The Other Twin and to get into ‘the zone’! They seem to be everywhere at the moment … This is one trend that shows no sign of…
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