1: Can you name a couple of books that to you perfectly capture the art and essence of writing?

2: How important are short stories and what do they add to the writer's arsenal?

3: Do you find ideas develop more during or prior to writing?

4: Do you need to set yourself challenges to progress your work or is writing enough of a challenge in itself?

5: Are you happy with your writing style or do you wish you could draw on elements of other writers' styles at times?

6: When did you realise your writing style had taken shape or is it something that will always develop and change?

7: What's your most satisfying piece of work and why?

8: Where do you see your writing going over the next year? Any major changes or are there things to resolve before you move on?

9: Are there any current authors that you admire for pushing the boundaries with their writing?

10: Is there one book you wish you'd written?









1: Can you name a couple of books that to you perfectly capture the art and essence of writing?

Of course - but it's very subjective. My first would be 'Alice in Wonderland' (Lewis Carroll) Nonsense of the highest order, yet to be surpassed. Extraordinary invention on many levels. Read it as a child and later as an adult – you'll get different things from it. Multi-leveled book which manages to inspire and entertain. Special Mention: The Jabberwock wearing spats and a tunic in John Tenniel's excellent illustration. There are many to choose from but for written comedy I'd go for 'Three Men in a Boat' by Jerome K Jerome. This is a book that I still laugh out loud whilst reading. Fresh and joyous self deprecating humour of lazy Victorian gentleman going for a cruise on the Thames in the late nineteenth century. I challenge anyone to read the 'Taking two cheeses by train' story without smirking. The fact that this still resonates with a quirky freshness 125 years after being written demonstrates to me that humans don't ever change. Special Mention: Montmorency the dog, cooking with a spirit stove and trying to open a tin of salmon.

2: How important are short stories and what do they add to the writer's arsenal?

I cut my teeth on short stories before I even began a novel, and although only one was ever published, I thought them an invaluable tool for practising the story-telling art and just getting used to sitting down in front of a keyboard and tapping away until something appears out of the textual jam. When I was working as an assistant in the film industry I kept a journal which is another good way of getting into the habit of writing - something that is essential if you are going to be in the wordage game for the long haul. My first novel was a short story that just wouldn't finish - I carried on with it until it was 100,000 words long and submitted it as a novel. It was rejected. (many, many, times.)

3: Do you find ideas develop more during or prior to writing?

I always write 'on the hoof'. If you think you have no idea how my books are going to turn out - you're not alone. I don't have any idea either. I just write and see where things go. I'd like to be able to sit down with a precise plan but I can't seem to do this. Makes the writing process very long-winded as much is chucked out as I find the correct course for the story, but in my type of novel, constant improvisation and a process of continual development seem to work the best.

4: Do you need to set yourself challenges to progress your work or is writing enough of a challenge in itself?

I have no trouble with writing other than the overwhelming urge to search eBay for things I don't need and can't afford. I have been doing a book a year for the last three years and a deadline is a pretty good incentive to me. I was a freelance assistant for many years and that sort of uncomplaining follow-orders-or-get-fired ethic seems to have stuck with me.

5: Are you happy with your writing style or do you wish you could draw on elements of other writers' styles at times?

I'm never really happy with my style or my books which is the healthiest thing to be. I can't imagine what it must be like to be an author who stops writing a novel because they don't believe they can make it any better. Constantly questioning myself takes me on to new and better things. I think you'll find that writers are constantly liberating ideas from other books - writers don't create, they recycle. And the best do it extremely efficiently.

6: When did you realise your writing style had taken shape or is it something that will always develop and change?

I don't think I have a writing style. It's just the way I write, or the way I walk, or talk, or stare at someone trying to figure out what they're talking about without appearing to be an idiot. It's just how I do things. I can affect a different writing style for narrative purposes in the same way as I can affect a different talking style for different audiences or even affect a silly walk for no adequately explained reason. Having said that I hope my style (whatever it is) will develop and change - I'd hate to stagnate.

7: What's your most satisfying piece of work and why?

There are short sections (sometimes as long as a chapter!) in all of my books that I enjoyed writing and feel a great deal of fondness for. Sadly, I don't feel that way about all of them. It's trying to make the good bits longer and connecting them together that is the bane of any author's life. On planet Author I'd be able to improve all my books at source and all the copies anywhere in the world would be updated automatically - the basis for the "UltraWord" plot device in Book Three - wishful thinking, really!

8: Where do you see your writing going over the next year? Any major changes or are there things to resolve before you move on?

I have another book to finish in the Thursday Next series so will be able to concentrate on other projects as soon as that is finished. This is a very exciting time for me as I have only vague ideas of what I shall be doing but I also know that this time next year I will have an entire novel in first draft - none of which I have any idea about. Very exciting. Like getting a very big present under the tree at Christmas and having no clue at all what's in it.

9: Are there any current authors that you admire for pushing the boundaries with their writing?

None that I can think of - but then I'm not really a great reader of contemporary novels. I venture into what's fashionable right now but can't see much difference to what was being written fifty or a hundred years ago

10: Is there one book you wish you'd written?

Any better than mine. (And there are plenty of those.)