1. Why do you write novels?

As a lonely only child who was a bit sheltered, I often found reality to be quite boring compared to my favourite books and films. I wanted to have magical adventures and meet strange supernatural creatures and that didn’t seem to happen very often in real life (gutted), so I’d make up my own stories instead. As an adult, writing became a different kind of escape: from anxiety, from depression, from trauma, from myself… Writing became therapy. Even if everything else in your life falls apart, writing is always there for you. Even when you can’t write, you have the potential of a fresh page. You can project a lot of positivity into a blank space!

2. Who inspired you?

I’ve never really aspired to be like any one particular person (except maybe Dana Scully from the X-Files) but I always find something or someone to inspire me, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. I’m like a magpie, thieving inspirational trinkets. Growing up, I was inspired by everything from Point Horror and the Baby-Sitters Club books to Handmaid’s Tale and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. My mother read to me, my grandmother made up stories with me, and my aunt and uncle introduced me to a lot of cool, cultured things. I met Jacqueline Wilson at a book fair once and thought, ‘Oh! She’s everything I want to be!’ I was inspired by a lot of fictional people too, even by random people I met on the internet in the 1990s.

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

The original title for The Girl With No Soul was Phantasmagoria, which probably wouldn’t have sold as well, but I like the vibes of it. It’s gothic, romantic and quaint, but also a bit creepy and tangled. I like to take those intangible things like emotions and give them a form or even a face. I’m all about the haunted mind and the spirits of the soul – the ghosts that live inside us. Everything I write seems to question reality but my characters also love to challenge authority. I can’t imagine writing a story in which the people in power were uncritically accepted. I want to reflect how complicated and confusing the world can be to navigate sometimes.

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

I’m always afraid to get excited about good things until they’re signed on the bottom line, so during the weeks of negotiations I was still quietly convinced that it would all fall through. I’d had another yes yes no experience about a decade earlier and I was sure that history was going to repeat itself. When everything was confirmed, it still didn’t feel real. I was numb. I went over to my married best friends’ house that day, which we’d planned in advance. I hadn’t said a word because I was afraid to jinx it but as I walked up to them, everything suddenly peaked inside me. I couldn’t keep it in any longer. I blurted out, “I got a book deal!” It came absolutely out of the blue so they were shocked and delighted, asking a million questions. We all started whooping and cheering and group-hugging. I think it was their happiness and excitement that tipped me over the edge.

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

Every time I talk to a young person who loves writing, or get a message from a stranger about how much they loved TGWNS, I feel accomplished already. Job done. Beyond that, I want to write a story I’m completely happy with, but apparently I’m a Virgo with Virgo rising so I’m not sure it will ever happen. I’ve heard other writers say “I wouldn’t change a thing about my book”, which blows my mind. I’d keep editing forever if I was allowed, so as close as I can get to a true feeling of completion and satisfaction would be nice. It would be great to win an award or get a Netflix deal, but ultimately the person I’m trying to impress is myself and that’s a lifelong work in progress.

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

Running out of energy? Possibly. I’m an introvert who struggles with self-promotion. Publishing can be fast-paced and chaotic. When things get hard, my instinct is to quit. But running out of ideas? Never. The idea factory part of my brain is always running at max, all noisy fans. I’m always working on a project or three, even if no one ever gets to see them but me. It’s the ‘bringing the ideas to fruition’ part that’s difficult, trying to turn that scrambled map in my head into something cohesive. I have too many ideas, if anything.

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

As Alice in Wonderland says, “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.” No matter what I said, I probably wouldn’t have listened, so I’d just give myself a really tight hug and say, “You’re alright, actually,” or something. All of those terrible mistakes I made along the way were good learning experiences, anyway. They brought me here in the end so maybe everything was as it was meant to be. I might say, “Stop caring so much about what other people think about you! Love yourself first!” This is probably advice I’d give to my current, older self too.

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

Most of my interests involve some form of escapism. I’m passionate about video games. I think they’re a great way for people who aren’t natural readers to consume stories, and some of them have incredibly rich lore. I’d love to write for a video game one day. My absolute favourite thing to do when I’m not writing is to build a little world – in Animal Crossing, in the Sims, whatever game will let me create something new. I used to work in film PR so I’m big on movies and TV too. I’m always falling into Wikipedia holes about unsolved mysteries. I have two cats; I’m pretty passionate about them. I haven’t travelled much in recent years but I love visiting new cities. I love miniatures and dioramas and collecting weird things to display in my curiosity cabinet.

9. How would your best friend describe you?

I first met my best friend when we were seventeen at a local pub. We were both sixth form theatre kids on the opposite side of a teenage feud. We always have fun together, whether we’re running away from angry snake charmers or playing Mario for hours on end. Over the decades, she’s seen many different variations of me but I think she’d say I’m still the exact same loveable idiot at my core. She’d tell you that I talk about aliens too much, and that I’m a good person to sit in comfortable silence with. She’d also tell you I don’t let her read my drafts in advance even though she begs me to share them.

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

No one has asked me about the weirdest dream I’ve ever had and the answer is: all of my dreams are weird. They all take place in the same imaginary town that has been evolving for decades but remains fundamentally unchanged. It has a swimming pool, a shopping centre, a train station, a canal, a campsite, a university… I could tell you exactly where the KFC is. I live in an old hotel there and my room gets broken into a lot while I’m away being awake. Sometimes I meet people there who I haven’t thought about in years. It fascinates me that this complex structure is taking up space in my brain when I can’t remember the name of the main character in the book I read yesterday.