1. Why do you write novels?

I write because kindness, compassion and love are the most important things in the world, and writing to weave them into stories means that children (and their grown-ups!) can discover for themselves how important, inspiring and fulfilling the experience of them can be.

2. Who inspired you?

My Mama, of course, and my family and my friends. Who really inspires me now is new storytellers – the novices, the tyros, the chancers and the hobbyists, the people squeezing in a few minutes to write around the responsibilities of childcare and work, the people scribbling and sketching between classes and bus stops, the ones who have a ball of hot joy inside them everytime they pick up a pen or tap out sentences on their phone. Those people.

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

Phhhhhhhfffffft what a question. Maybe the dialogue? Or the close attention to time? I want my readers to feel like they’re following the characters in a shoulder-to-shoulder kind of way, and that there’s a sense of day following night in the unfolding of the books. This is a tricky question for a writer. Quite analytical.

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

When I wrote the Sippyshakez-at-the-mall scene in Stick Boy, which is a very silly conversation between some very new friends.

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

To write more, and write well. It doesn’t always have to be better per say, it just has to be me writing something or someone or somewhere that I haven’t written in the same way as before. Nor does it have to be published – all of my writing for grown-ups is shared between friends.

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

Nope. Or maybe? I like short stories too, that’s a fun form, and I write poetry. It depends on the message – some media work better in shorter forms, or moving ones. Or wordless ones, even.

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

Write, boy! I didn’t write a thing between age 21 and age 38. I was otherwise engaged. Just write.

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

Reading, of course. Connecting with people, making new friends, trying new things. Volunteering, in those conversational kinds of ways. Mentoring. Drawing. Going for extremely long walks. Getting into the sea, but only in summer.

9. How would your best friend describe you?

Late. Impatient. Good craic, hopefully.

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

Q. Are there too many children’s books?

A. No, and: yes. There are enough great children’s books on the perennial favourites like dinosaurs, unicorns, boarding school mysteries, demi-gods and princesses. There’s always room for books that make a new kind of connection with a young reader – remember that the book you write might be a child’s only book, and we all have a responsibility to make that book and its story something that resonates and uplifts. We need to make it count.