When did you realize that you wanted to become
a writer?
Before I even realised
that being a writer could be a job!
Is being an Author all
you dreamed of, or did it just happen?
I’ve always written. I
remember spending hours in my bedroom when I was young, scribbling in
notebooks, making up stories. I started submitting stories to literary journals
when my dad bought me a subscription to a writing magazine.
What was the very first thing you ever wrote?
The first complete
story I wrote was about a golden horse that could fly, when I was about seven
or eight – sadly long-gone.
The first short story I wrote to submit was called The Walking Dead (and
appears in my short story collection That Sadie Thing). It’s about a girl who
runs away from home. I’ve still got the journal it was originally published in.
What was the inspiration for your book?
The collection was
originally written as a competition entry. I decided to enter quite close to
the closing date, so I basically sat down for a month and splurged every
opening sentence, every story I could think of into a beautiful notebook. Some
of the stories are very much as they were initially written, others went
through quite a thorough revision, and others still got crossed out. It was
liberating, because I was just able to write down everything that was on my
mind without thinking about the story I was going to tell.
Who is your literary hero?
I adore Margaret
Atwood. I love how she can move so easily between genres and write with such
compassion for her characters. She’s the complete opposite of how I write – her
ideas and words tumble over each other with beautiful description, while I’m a
much tighter, concise writer.
How much of your characters are based on your
traits or someone you know personally?
There’s always a little
bit of me in my characters, but in my new collection about a third of them have
come directly from my life and things I’ve experienced. Ode to River is about a
poster I used to have on my wall, and Growing Apart recounts the thoughts I was
having while watching a couple eating in a café.
Describe your main character in six words.
As it’s a short story collection, there
are many characters, so: Broken people searching for happiness/validation .
Describe the world you’ve created in six words.
The world around us,
strikingly unleashed.
What story was your favorite to write?
I loved writing
Watching the Storms Roll In – I had no idea where the story was going when I
started, but it just flowed. I can’t say much about it because it gives too
much away. Hopefully that flow transfers onto the reader as well.
What story was the hardest for you to write?
Motherhood was the hardest,
about a premature baby and her subsequent health issues. I was lucky enough to
have had two healthy babies, but I knew I needed to be so careful and
sympathetic, and get the feelings of a parent dealing with a poorly baby just
right.
What are you working on now?
I’m trying to forget I
have a short novel on submission by freshening up some short stories to enter
into some competitions next month. And I’m playing with some ideas for another
novel, but they’re very vague at the moment.
Goals? Accomplishments? Improvements?
At the beginning of the
year I won 3rd Place in the Costa Short Story Award with Watching
the Storms Roll In (included in the collection). It’s an award affiliated to
the Costa Book Awards, so I was at this year’s ceremony in London in January,
which was very surreal.
My next goal is to
publish a full-length novel. I naturally prefer shorter stories, so a novel is
a huge challenge. I’ve written a couple, so watch this space!
Are there any authors or books you recommend?
I’m currently reading
The Many by Wyl Menmuir, longlisted for the Man Booker Award – so far, so
brilliant!
What's your favorite thing to do when you're
not writing?
I’m pretty boring when
I’m not writing. I like to workout at the gym (I’m also a gym instructor), walk
my dog, play board games with my kids, and veg out with cheesy films starring
Hugh Grant or David Tennant.
