When I was 13 I discovered that I loved writing stories, but I didn’t exactly decide I wanted to become an author, because for most of my life it seemed like an unattainable dream, something that only happened to special people. I just decided in my mid-twenties that I wanted to try and get a book published.
Tell us a bit about your middle grade series for girls. What was your inspiration for it?
The series is about a girl called Bathsheba – Bath for short. It’s written as if it’s her diaries. In the first book, Chips, Beans and Limousines, it initially appears that she’s really spoiled, but as you read between the lines you find out that actually the truth is quite different, and a more touching – but funny – story comes out. In the next two books, Socks, Shocks, and Secrets and Doughnuts, Dreams and Drama Queens, Bath changes her life completely, and has lots of new adventures. They’re funny books about daily life, family, and friendship for an extraordinary girl, but there is also a big helping of adventure.
Why do you think your novels are so popular with young girls?
I think girls like them because they feel emotionally honest. I think they’re very funny, and they have lots of exciting things happening, but at the same time, Bath is a child who really, in the first book, feels deeply unloved. I think children identify with her sadness and loneliness as well as her desire to be noticed. And I think they are really glad for her when she gets some friends and a kind of family who love her.
Are you a disciplined writer? What are your working habits?
I’m not very disciplined - I let unimportant things distract me. I am also often traveling, or moving, so I have trouble fixing regular habits for writing. I give myself deadlines – I say ‘I will write this series proposal by Friday,’ for example. And I am able to say ‘Today I will just work on my novel,’ and the next day go to work, or work on a critique or something. But working 9 to 1, for example, is not easy, because I share my house with someone who also works at home, and I don’t have a separate office - so I may want to start writing at 9, but if he’s still asleep I can’t start typing next to the bed.
Technically speaking, what comes more naturally to you when writing a novel? What do you have to struggle with the most?
Article comments
1 - Jodie Knight
I thought these books were the best books I have read and I only started reading them one month ago, if I had to rate these books I would give them a 5 star rating!