Today I’m joining the blog tour for I’ve Been Waiting For You. I’m sharing my Q&A with the author with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the tour and to Elaine Robertson-North for answering my questions!

Have you always wanted to write?

Yes! I started writing my first novel in my 20s but life and my career basically got in the way. Although I continued to write sporadically and had a few features published along the way, somehow twenty five years slipped by before I published my first book.

What were your previous jobs? Have they helped you with your writing process?

There were so many! I always worked in marketing and communications, starting with a magazine company, then a radio station followed by seven years in national newspapers, then a TV company and finally a marketing agency. In between I also worked on films and three Red Nose Days for Comic Relief. It was all fast and furious and a fantastically rich source of material! I also spent most of my career working to tight deadlines which was a great discipline to learn too.

What was your inspiration for I’ve Been Waiting For You?

The inspiration for I’ve Been Waiting For You came from a very simple thought about how two people, in this case siblings, can start life in exactly the same way, but go on to lead dramatically different lives.

How do you construct your characters? Do they have traits of people you know?

Lots of them have bits of me in them. More likely, they’re an amalgam of various friends. My thinking is if I steal little bits of lots of people they’re less likely to notice! I normally have a fairly good idea of a character’s qualities before I start but lots of their traits develop as the story moves forward.

What does your writing process look like? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m somewhere in between. I do a lot of planning and have the main story plotted out before I start but inevitably the story takes over and there’ll be a fair amount of free-styling! There’s a plot twist at the start of Part 2 in I’ve Been Waiting For You and that was a development that just came to me as I was writing.

How did you research? Did you enjoy it?

I do rely quite heavily on Google for my research. Like lots of crime and thriller writers, I live in fear of anyone looking too closely at my search history! I do also talk to people in the know if I want to fact check something specific. It is a process I enjoy and making sure there’s at least some accuracy to your plot is obviously important!

Who are your favourite writers? Are you influenced by them?

There are so many. Lisa Jewell, Clare Mackintosh and CL Taylor immediately spring to mind. I also really like Kathryn Hughes, Ruth Hogan and Liane Moriarty. The list goes on! I think I’m inspired by them more than influenced. To sit alongside any of these authors on a bookshelf is the ultimate goal.

If you could invite three people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be and why?

Agatha Christie, Tom Hanks and Winnie Bell, my maternal grandmother, for the inspiration, the stories and the laughs, and to meet the woman I most likely inherited my love of writing from.

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?

Annie Wilkes, Kathy Bates’s character in Misery. Seem to remember authors don’t fare well in her company!

Who would play the main character/s in a film version of I’ve Been Waiting For You?

Rose Leslie, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Idris Elba, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant. Wouldn’t that be a stellar line-up?!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love to sing and have been a member of a choir for over a decade. It’s called Popchoir so as you would expect, we spend our time belting out pop songs – although I’m not sure our choir director would be too keen on my use of the word ‘belting’! Apart from that, spare time is always family time.

What is next for you?

Book number four! It’s already underway and going well so that will keep me busy for the next few months.

Favourites:

Book?

Lucky Man by Michael J Fox. Impossible to choose one fiction title.

Film?

About Time 

Band/Singer?

George Michael  

TV show?

Succession 

Colour?

Blue 

Place?

Home

Biscuit?
Jammy dodger

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I’ve Been Waiting For You is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: