BBM: Was there a certain time in your life you knew you wanted to write?
No. I hated writing at school though I was always good at it. As I've said above,
I started because it seemed better than the alternatives, and it still does. I love
language and I love creating characters and settings; other aspects, not so
much!
BBM: Of the books you’ve written, which one is your favorite and why?
My favourite is always the one I just sent to my editor, because it's out of my
hands apart from a few revisions and proofreading.
BBM: What books have most influenced you as a writer?
As far as the mysteries are concerned, those "Golden Age" mysteries written in
the first half of the 20th century, particularly those of Josephine Tey, Ngaio
Marsh, Patricia Wentworth, Dorothy Sayers, R. Austin Freeman, Michael Innes.
Et many al. For the Regencies, Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.
BBM: What do you find to be the most challenging part of writing? And
the most rewarding?
I find plotting tough. I usually know where I'm starting and where I'll finish
(though not always that) but sometimes getting from one to the other can be a
struggle. In Sheer Folly, I knew how I was going to kill the victim, but not which
of two people would be killed and which the killer.
Besides creating characters and figuring out how they would behave in certain
situations, I enjoy writing about places and trying to make my readers feel as if
they were there. This is particularly the case in the Cornish mysteries, because
Cornwall is such a beautiful place. The Daisy books and Regencies are set in
lots of different places, so that's also interesting.