Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve always loved reading and writing, and from an early age I dreamed of becoming a writer one day. As I got older, exams, boys, art college and finally a career all got in the way, and I only started writing again when my ten year old daughter complained that she couldn’t find enough adventure stories to read. Then I remembered my ambition and decided it might be a good time to make it happen.
Over the next few years I wrote two children’s novels and a self-help book, as well as lots of articles about healthy eating and family history. I found a publisher for the self-help book, but it wasn’t until 2014 that I finally decided to self-publish the two novels. Eye Spy and Haunted are contemporary mystery stories for middle grade readers, set in a seaside town, about two teen sleuths and their detective service, Eye Spy Investigations. They were great fun to write, and Haunted was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards in 2017.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
In 2019 the last book in the Eye Spy series, Lady in Red, was published. The house at the centre of the story, Acacia Villa, was inspired by the house I lived in from the age of nine, a large Victorian villa which had been divided into three flats. We lived in the first floor flat, and I fell in love immediately with the garden behind the house, which was divided into three terraces. At the top was a patio, then there was a large lawn, and the bottom level was a neglected jungle. The best thing about the garden was that from there I had access through a hole in the fence to the totally overgrown garden of the house next door, which had been empty for years. It was my own secret garden, and it provided the perfect setting for the adventures that take place in Lady in Red. Writing about it was like returning to my childhood!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m very lucky – I have my own study. I need absolute quiet and no disturbances to write, or I lose concentration and give up.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am a great admirer of Jacqueline Wilson’s children’s books and also Sue Townsend’s Diary of Adrian Mole, which have both influenced my Eye Spy books. I also loved the Harry Potter books, which taught me that kids love a mystery story with scenes that take place at both home and school, and which also feature pets.
What are you working on now?
At the moment I’m trying my hand at writing a Young Adult book, and I would really like to find a publisher for this one, because self-publishing is Hard Work. It started out as a contemporary reworking of a Dickens novel, but after getting some advice from a literary agent about what publishers are looking for at present, I’m rethinking the plot. It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever tried to write, but I’m determined to finish it and help my two protagonists to find their happy ending.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
With children’s books, the best way to reach your target audience is to get into schools, by offering to help with literacy programmes or offering creative writing sessions. I also do a lot of face to face promotion at book fairs. I am a member of a local writer’s network and we get together regularly to arrange literary events and promote each other’s books. Online, you can really only sell to the parents/grandparents rather than the children themselves.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Restraint! DON’T publish until you have worked out a marketing plan and started to implement it. You have to work out how to help people discover your book, and this takes time. Join ALLIA (Alliance of Independent Authors) to get advice from successful Indie authors. I wish someone had told me this before I published my first novel!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read as much as possible in the genre you write in. Work out how the best authors do it, and learn from them.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading lots of YA novels, to get me into the zone for my work in progress. Some authors I’ve discovered that I really enjoy are Holly Jackson, Sheena Wilkinson, and Shirley Anne Macmillan. And when I tire of contemporary YA, I return to old favourites like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have promised my family that when I have finished the current book, I will write up everything I have discovered about my mother’s family, the Clodes. They had an interesting past, running coach services in and out of London in the eighteenth century, as well as coaching inns in and around Windsor.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
On a desert island escapism would be the order of the day, so maybe two novels by my favourite author, Georgette Heyer: Venetia and These Old Shades; plus one of the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon – I’ve reached number 5 now, The Fiery Cross.
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