1. Why do you write novels?

Liz: Because it’s the most fun you can have on your own! And because fictional worlds are often more pleasant to be in than the real world.

Kate: I agree with that – if you create a world, you get to be in charge. You can make sure that the good guy comes out on top and that the bad guy gets it, and you can define what you mean by good and bad. Writing a novel definitely gives the author a feeling of control that can often be lacking in real life. Plus, the moment when you can hold up a completed book and say, ‘I created this’, is such a joy.

2. Who inspired you?

Liz: So many people. Kate and I have always been big readers, and we like a lot of the same books and authors. Of course, writers you first read as a child always have a huge impact. For me, that includes Susan Cooper, Arthur C Clark and Terry Pratchett.

Kate: Liz has always read more sci-fi than me, but I’d also list Susan Cooper as an inspiration, together with Jane Austen, J R R Tolkien and Neil Gaiman. Our nana was also a huge inspiration to both of us. She didn’t have a particularly easy life, but she always fought to improve things for herself and those around her, and she really believed in both of us even when we didn’t believe in ourselves.

3. What’s the essence of your style? The part, if removed, is not your voice anymore?

Liz: Humour for me – I love writing funny dialogue, a bit of banter between the characters. Our books have become increasingly dark in tone as we’ve progressed, but even when faced with the direst situations, I like my characters to be able to look on the bright side, and to be able to crack a joke. They often use humour to diffuse the terror!

Kate: It would probably be the world-building for me. I read a lot of fantasy growing up (Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin among others) and I love to create vivid new worlds for my characters. I’m very detail orientated and like to think about every facet of the world, from the daily lives of the people who live there ­– their homes, what they eat, what they wear, how they travel ­– to bigger concepts like the structure of government, religion, and the climate. For me, constructing a detailed and believable world is what really makes the story come alive.

4. What was your dance-around-the-kitchen moment in writing?

Liz: We’ve been lucky enough to have quite a few! Getting our first offer of representation from an agent in January 2015 was an unforgettable moment, as was finding out that HarperCollins were going to give us our first publishing deal – we were both in John Lewis and definitely got some odd looks as we jumped up and down shrieking, but we didn’t care!

Kate: Since then, other top moments include getting a publication deal from the brilliant team at Hot Key, getting our first foreign rights sale in 2019 when A Throne Of Swans was sold into Russia, and Daughter Of Darkness going to auction in France – that was a huge author goal, and it made us both really happy.

5. What do you want to accomplish in your writing career?

Liz: To win the Booker Prize obviously! Not really. My main aim is to keep writing books that I want to write, but that publishers also want to publish, and that people want to read. I have so many stories in my head – it’s lovely to see them come to life on the written page and to be able to share them with so many other people.

Kate: I want to always keep improving and trying new things with my writing, whether that’s new genres and forms or branching out into something like screen-writing. Oh – and to have something I’ve written made into a film or TV series. That would be really amazing!

6. Can you ever envisage not writing novels - running out of ideas or energy?

Liz: Ideas? No. We both have lots of ideas for books to write together and separately. My main worry is not having enough time to actually write them all. Energy is my issue. I’m widowed, I have teenage children and I work full time, so finding a moment when I’m not too exhausted to write can be tricky.

Kate: I can imagine running out of energy, though I hope not to. Publishing can be a brutal industry, with a disproportionate bias towards debuts, and there are so many people who want to be writers that the power balance between authors and publishers is really skewed. Even published writers get rejections, and those low points can really sap your energy.

7. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Liz: Have more confidence! Part of the reason it took us so long to get going was that neither of us really believed it was possible. We didn’t come from the kind of background that meant we had family members who knew people in publishing and neither of us had great self-esteem. It took us a long time to work up the courage to show our writing to other people.

Kate: What Liz has said is right, but I’d also add: finish things. For years both of us wrote separately; we always had lots of great ideas, and were able to craft some lovely opening chapters, but we both tended to give up in that difficult middle section. We’d have made progress more quickly if we’d actually finished one of the many books we started! Unless you’re writing non-fiction, no one is likely to offer you your first publication deal on the basis of one chapter and an idea.

8. Away from writing, what are your passions, and what do they mean to you?

Liz: I love a kitchen disco! Moving to my favourite music really lifts my mood – it can be a lifesaver when I’m in the doldrums. I’ve also recently started sketching again, and it’s been so good to reconnect with something I loved when I was younger. It’s so important to have things in my life that aren’t about my work and my family. Having said that, one of my favourite things at the moment is cooking with my kids. Now they are a bit older, we can be more adventurous!

Kate: I play various instruments, including the harp – I don’t play them very well, but since it’s just for me that doesn’t matter. There something about playing music that really helps me calm down and put things in perspective; it feels like a sort of mindfulness, really. I also just love instruments, and I’d collect all sorts if I had the space to store them! The other week I barely resisted buying a glockenspiel I spotted in a local charity shop…

9. How would your best friend describe you?

Liz: Funny, I think – or at the very least, upbeat. I’m generally a pretty optimistic person!

Kate: I am not an optimistic person. I hope my best friend would describe me as loyal, if indecisive. I’m not actually going to ask her because I don’t want to know the truth.

10. What’s a significant question to ask you, that no other interview has to date, and what’s the answer, only for New2theScene?

**Liz: **No-one has asked us which has been our favourite character to write so far. I think for me, it would be Deina. She’s like our previous heroines (Merry and Aderyn), strong, noble, self-sacrificing, but she has a bit of a dark side that our other protagonists’ didn’t quite have. Not to say I don’t love Merry and Aderyn just as much. And I will always love Leo, Merry’s older brother: he’ll always have a special place in my heart. But Deina has probably been the most fun to write so far!

Kate: This is tricky – picking just one character feels unfair to the others somehow! But if I’m forced to pick, I’m going to have to plump for Nat. I’m not going to say too much about him in case anyone reading this hasn’t yet read Daughter Of Darkness or Queen Of Gods – I don’t want to include spoilers! What I can say is that I absolutely love his cast-iron self-belief and (generally) sunny disposition, despite the nature of his day job!