From Pages to Pages: Author Interview

What’s your favorite place in the entire world? How much money and time do I have? Let’s say I’m on lunch then it would be the local bookstore, it’s a little piece of heaven for me. If I’ve a few days to relax then send me to the Greek Island of Corfu, the thought of the place makes me relax. If I’ve a couple of weeks then put me on a plane to Mexico. I adore Mexico. But if I’m at home trying to escape reality as we writers do on a minute by minute basis then of course I love fictionworld. There’s no better place in the entire world than where your imagination can take you. It’s so much fun! Fictionworld is my favourite place in the entire world.

How has your upbringing influenced your writing? Yes! I don’t think anyone can say their upbringing hasn’t influenced their writing in some way or another. The very foundations of who you are lie within the experiences you’ve had.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? No. I’ve been writing stories and poems longer than I can remember. My source on this is my Mum. But I can tell you the moment I decided I wanted to be an author. I was 14 and I read Danielle Steele’s The Gift. Maribeth’s is a pregnant teen who meets a shattered family and, oh my, at 14 I reached for my abdomen in what I can only assume was a protective maternal instinct as I connected with Maribeth. That was me hooked, lined and officially sunk in the sea of published author dreams. And do you know, today, even with the idea of children shooting me for a very dark cave in the mountains a la the first radio airing of Orson Wells War of the Worlds, I still reach for my abdomen.

When and why did you begin writing? My mum tells me I’ve always been writing stories, ever since I was about 5 or 6. I don’t remember. The dream to be a published author began at fourteen after I read Danielle Steele’s The Gift. For four year I wrote for hours and hours on end. I wrote twenty to fifty thousand words per story. I had no idea I was writing novellas. Then life got in the way and it was another eight years before I started writing again and a further five before I took the route to independently publish Tainted Love.

How long have you been writing? Forever! But I began taking my writing seriously five years ago. I’ve written six novels in this time, they’re currently at various stages. Tainted Love was the last written and first published.

When did you first know you could be a writer? Ooh tough one! Let me think… There’s a difference between ‘wanting to be’ and ‘knowing you can be’… so I guess if I was truly honest, only in the last eighteen months or so. This is an industry where you’re told you’re not good enough before anyone has even seen your work so the dream was always there but the confidence to go for it has only grown recently. When I eventually had the confidence I bypassed traditional publishing all together because it’s not possible for Faith’s story to conform to the norms. It’s too short, for traditional women’s fiction, too long for Harlequin Romance. It has a contemporary first person voice, very much like chic-lit, but its dark tale about domestic abuse. It’s a romance without the obligatory they all lived happily ever after.