Maggie O'Farrell, the Brontes, Carol Shields, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, to name a few.
2.Who has had a major influence on your writing?
Jodi Picoult is an inspiration, I think she picks fascinating topics, seeks to engage everybody, and handles all her characters with thoughtful insight . even the really tough ones.
3.Name a book you never finished?
I don't get along with Charles Dickens very well . I don't think I've finished any of his!
4.What word or words do you always have trouble spelling?
As a former editor I shouldn't admit to any, should I?! On the last spelling test I did for fun (yep, I said fun!), I got one wrong: desiccate.
5.What three adjectives best describe you?
Adventurous . well, I was at one time. Now I've had my daughter most of my adventures are happening in my head for the time being!
Dedicated . I try to give my all to people and projects as much as I can.
Curious . the more I learn, the more fascinated with life I become.
6.Which of your characters would you want to be and why?
That's a tough question, since I give a lot of my characters a really hard time! I like Grace in Beneath the Shadows, because she's soft and tough at the same time, but I'd prefer to morph into her once she's moved away from Roseby, if you don't mind.
7.Which author would you invite to dinner?
Alice Walker . but I'd either get my husband to cook, or take her out to ensure she gets a decent meal!
8.Where do you write?
At home, at the library or in cafes, depending on where it's quieter (or how hungry I am!).
9.When do you write?
Day and night, although I have a few hours a week where my little girl is looked after by a childminder, and I try to devote that time to writing.
10.What makes you happy?
New adventures, and watching my family having fun.
11.What do you most fear?
Wasting precious time or opportunities in life by being afraid.
12.What is your favorite vice?
Chocolate cake or a nice Devonshire tea.
13.What is the quality you most like in yourself?
Determination.
14.What are the qualities you most like in your friends?
Compassion, empathy, and thoughtfulness.
15.Would you be lying if you said your works were not autobiographical?
No . I really do make a lot of stuff up!
16.What part of your personality do you detest?
I don't detest anything about myself. If I don't like something about myself then I'll try to figure out why and change it, and I usually find out that my thinking has become skewed somehow. Life is too short to waste it on self-hatred.
17.What is your favorite adjective?
At the moment it's .beautiful' because my two year old describes everything she loves as .tee-tee-ful'.
18.What is your favorite book?
I find it hard to name just one. One of my current favourites is Jasper Jones.
19.What book would you read three times?
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
20.To whom would you award the Nobel Prize for Literature and why?
Virginia Woolf, posthumously . for her mastery of language, her insight and originality, and her inestimable contribution to writing and the canon of literature written by women. She should have won it long before now.
Please login
or Sample Chapter button on the Book Profile Pages
