Q: What was your first novel and how did you get your first book deal?

My first book deal was with HERA (part of Canelo) in 2019, but I have a bit of a backstory about it. I actually wrote my first novel when I was 16 years old. It was a small project and I wrote it on an old 90's word processor with a floppy disc. I'd spent years reading a lot of Stephen King novels, and other horror stories that I attempted to write a horror novel about a cult. However, it ended up being left in the loft of an old property I moved out of. (I regret leaving it there.) It was titled, The Shade of Darkness.

With the ever growing popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, in 2017 I wrote an erotic thriller novella called Sordida (I thought I'd give it a go). Hands down it was absolutely rubbish, and was never going to compete. The erotica was awful, but the thriller aspects I enjoyed writing the most. This has now been cleaned up, edited and re-titled, Glimmer of Hope.

In 2018 I started to take it more seriously and wrote my first full-length psychological thriller. Around the same time, I saw HERA books start up on social media, and kept them in mind. When I finally finished the novel, which took a year to write in a small flat in Plymouth, I submitted it to HERA and received the book deal after a series of communication by telephone, email etc. Mummy's Boy, I will always consider my first born 'real' novel, but I've learned a lot about the publishing process since then.

Q: What is your writing process?

Being disciplined enough to commit to weekends and the odd weekday evening writing. When I have the idea for a novel I aim to write a minimum of 4,000 to 5,000 words per week. My first draft is always a rough version of the story unleashed before I will then spend a month tidying it up, then after that I will set an editing schedule with my publisher. Once I’ve submitted my novel, then it’s only the beginning. Structural edits, line edits, proof-reading and final rewrites can take a number of weeks prior to release.

Q: Do you write using pen and paper or on a computer?

My handwriting is so terrible that I can’t even understand it when I read it back. I use a computer for all my writing. I have fallen in love with Microsoft Surface Pro’s. I take it everywhere with me because it’s as thin as a tablet, but a very powerful laptop too. I type each chapter into separate files as my first draft. I then edit each chapter separately before merging them all into one big document for submission to my publisher.

Q: Who is your favourite character out of your stories and why?

I really like a character I referred to as ‘The Watcher’ from my thriller debut, Mummy’s Boy. I got to play with the idea of revenge with that character and really portray some hard hitting anger scenes. The Watcher is a person who thought she’d never ever get her payback, but at the same time she tortured herself with refuelling her hatred for other characters in the book. I loved writing about her, and she’s very complex. I would love to revisit that character one day.

Q: If you were a character in your story, which would you like to be?

Although I enjoyed writing about The Watcher as previously mentioned, but if I were a character in my own story then I’d have to be Jenny the lead from my novel You Let Him In. She’s naïve, wants a settled happy lifestyle and was suddenly thrown into difficult times with very little scope to react to danger at short notice. The way she thought and reacted was more akin to my own character. When I was writing her ending, I was literally shaking because it was so intense.

Q: How and why did you choose the names for your main characters?

In my novels some of the names are very similar to places or people near me. For instance, Jenny Cliff is a location in Devon, but Jenny Clifton is a character from You Let Him In. Other times I think about the age of my characters and I’ll search online for popular names around the year they could have been born.