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Here are my answers to some of the questions I'm often asked. If you have a question not covered here, please do email me via the Contact page, and I will reply here as soon as I can. 1.What made you want to start writing? It’s an urge, like scratching. It’s always been my ambition to write fiction. I’d done freelance journalism over the years, and now, finally, I’m writing novels … 2.How did you get your first publishing deal, did you get any rejection letters initially? By persuading a top agent, Michael Sissons at pfd, that he should take me on. He was brilliant and got me a two-book deal when I’d almost given up hope! I’d had a number of rejection slips, sending out raw amateurish work, but I learned from them, they made me revisit the work and see how far I had to go. 3.Are you a full-time writer now? Almost… I’m a trustee of Addaction, a charity that helps people addicted to drugs and alcohol and Vice President of NYCPE (National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy.) Also being a political spouse keeps me busy. But I enjoy writing so much that I put off doing all the household chores… 4. How and where do you write? Both in longhand and on the laptop. I used to write at the kitchen/dining room table and endlessly have to clear up. Then my adult daughter suggested using her old bedroom – up three flights and tiny, hardly room for my desk.. It still has the bed in it, though, which I cover with reference books to avoid taking quick naps. It’s a long way down when the doorbell rings, but as private as any garden shed. 5.How long does it take you to write a book? My first one took four or five years. I’d never been to a creative writing class and had to learn about fiction the hard way – by writing the story over and over until I knew how to paint in words, put in all the detail of the scenes in my mind, and ‘hear’ the conversation. The second and third books have taken over a year each. 6.Are the characters in your novel based on real people? No, none of them. One or two people may have influenced me slightly and helped with character formation – myself included when it came to the flaws! The guinea pig in ‘Ursula’s Story’ is real, a faithfully described long-ago family pet... 7.Do you have a favourite author that inspired you? George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Hemmingway, Waugh, Sebastian Foulkes Iris Murdoch - to scratch the surface. 8.What fictional character have you found most intriguing? Rochester in Jane Eyre 9.Being married to Michael Howard, you must be used to press interest by now – what was it like talking about your work in the media? I enjoy writing and form such attachments to my characters that it’s like being in love, the urge is always to there talk about it all. 10.Your books have been very well-received by the critics generally, do you find it difficult reading reviews? It’s the most terrifying part. It’s flattering to be reviewed, but fills me with dread. Everything. I was writing about young people falling in love. My hero was Muslim, the research exceptionally interesting. And with a terrorist plot, building in the suspense was immensely stimulating and exciting – I could hardly bear to reach the end. |
