Today I’m joining the birthday blitz for Maid Of Steel. 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 Kate Baker for answering my questions!

Have you always wanted to write?

I wrote stories as a child and probably into my teenage years, but then that habit seemed to dwindle away. I wouldn’t write again until my late 40s, after I’d rediscovered reading! My children were grown up and didn’t need me to ferry them around as much, so I had more time and began to pick up novels again. I enjoyed reading and had forgotten how much I loved stories. It wasn’t long before I thought about having a go myself.

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

I found administrative secretarial roles when I first left school at 16 with three O levels and through a job agency called Alfred Marks, ended up a legal secretary for two years. I never went back to formal education but have never been out of work. I left home at 19 and went off to Northampton from Suffolk for another job with a company car – a Renault 19! Then in 1992 I was made redundant along with a handful of others when a solicitors was downsizing. I stayed in Northampton and found work at BBC Radio Northampton, before moving to London to work on the Johnnie Walker show on Radio Five (that was before it became Five Live!). I would say jobs gave me life experience and that all helps with the writing process; providing content to inspire stories.

What was your inspiration for Maid of Steel?

I was away in Cork, Southern Ireland, with a friend for my fiftieth birthday in 2019. As well as copious amounts of wine, we were determined to visit a museum and be cultured too! We found the Cobh Heritage Centre in the port of Cobh, south of Cork city and spent over an hour in there. The first half is dedicated to the potato famine in the mid 1880s and the second to Titanic’s final port of call before her Atlantic crossing in April 1912. When Hannah and I returned to the Airbnb (a converted double-decker bus called The Lux Bus) she opened a bottle of wine and I opened a notebook, an idea forming; what if a girl came to Ireland from New York, to find out where her grandparents came from? What if she fell in love with someone she couldn’t have and then had to return home on Titanic? Those were literally the first two sentences in that notebook!

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

My characters tend to grow as I write. I don’t interview or interrogate them before I begin as some authors do. I think characters’ traits are all rooted in our blueprints and life’s experience of people. I don’t’ create a character 100% based on a single person, but utilise different behaviours I’ve seen displayed (in others and sometimes even myself) for certain reactions in scenes. I think readers prefer to read characters who have depth. Who needs a cardboard robot (unless, of course, you’re reading a science fiction novel … and even then I bet they’ll do something unexpectedly human at some point!)

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

 I recently learnt that I’m something called a Chaotic Plotter! There’s a chart I saw with 9 specific author types between those two descriptions and while I don’t follow a rigid plan, I do have an outline in my head before I begin – perhaps post-it notes on the wall which occasionally float off and become walked over because I’m too busy writing to pick them up!

How did you research? Did you enjoy it?

I love my research, although it can take over for months and stop you writing the story. I bought over ten books from ebay about Ireland and suffragettes and read articles written in the early 20th century, so that when I did my first big edit, I could flesh out the scene ideas I’d thrashed out during Nano2019 and make the scenes authentic. 

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

I adore Rose Tremaine, Kristin Hannah, Julie Cohen. They all write incredible family dramas that pull you in and tie you in knots. I don’t always look for a happy ending either; I enjoy that rather tortuous feeling of being bereft at the end of a brilliant book, life The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans or The Book Thief by Markus ZuZak. 

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

Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who sadly died a few years back too young, who wrote The Shadow of the Wind and further fantasy books in the series set in old Spain. I couldn’t put them down! Margaret Attwood because I’d love to sit in her presence and hope some of her wit and style might rub off on me. And Enid Blyton for that escapism world she wrote for children, because I doubt we’ll ever have that innocence again for our little ones.

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

I’ll steer clear of politics here, so instead let’s say any narcissist who enjoys the sound of their voice so much they never pause to actually listen. Listening is an art that so many of us fail to practice.

Who would play the main character/s in a film version of Maid Of Steel? 

This is a hard one, because I don’t really describe in great detail the three main characters in Maid of Steel. I prefer to leave interpretation about how they look to the reader. But from a characterful point of view, perhaps Jude Law  would make a great Thomas, Emma could be played by Carey Mulilgan who does a great American accent even though she’s English, and then dear Alice, my antagonist, must be someone with dark hair (I do describe her in the second chapter, because her appearance is everything to her), so I’m thinking maybe Phoebe Tonkin.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I don’t have much of that, but if I do, then it’s reading. Reading fills the well of ideas. We don’t copy other authors, so much as take inspiration from their brilliant sentences or points of view or plots. Stephen King said once said “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things. Read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things as far as I’m aware, no shortcut.”

What is next for you?

I’m writing my next standalone; a dual time-line called THE PROJECTIONIST. Frank is an old man and a widower who walks past derelict cinema every single day at the same time. It is the time his wife watched his message home from when he was in Egypt in 1952 doing National Service. He was there for two years and in 1953 Joan had to deal with the East Anglian Floods alone. Their marriage was never the same.

Favourites:

Book?

The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

Film?

In my 20s/30s – Top Gun (seen it 80m times) 

In my 40s – The Horse Whisperer

In my 50s – Equalizer

Band/Singer?

I had Duran Duran posters on my bedroom walls (and ceiling if I remember rightly) but a highlight was being taken to watch Bryan Adams in the early 1990s! Nowadays I listen to a lot of instrumental while writing; Hans Zimmer’s tune from the films can really help embed myself in a scene. 

TV show?

I watch the old Lovejoy series with Ian McShane. Nowadays it’s mostly reality TV and of those, The Repair Shop is great.

Colour?

It used to be green, but now it’s blue

Place?

Skiathos Island, Greece. 

Biscuit?

Custard Cream

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Giveaway:

The author is kindly offering one lucky winner a signed copy of Maid Of Steel, along with a candle and lipsil. You can enter here.

Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Maid Of Steel is available from Amazon.