Where do you get your ideas?

This is one of the questions I get asked a lot, and I always find it tricky to answer because there are so many sources of inspiration which I weave into my novels. Here’s a few:

Popular culture

It could be a TV show, a film, or a song lyric that plants the seed of an idea. For example, my second novel Falling Again (to be published by Choc Lit in 2021) is unashamedly inspired by one of my favourite TV shows – Dancing on Ice!

And perhaps you thought there was something familiar about the girl band in Star in the Shadows? My inspiration for Femme Fatale was the Pussycat Dolls who, like Femme Fatale, were a girl group originally put together to perform in a nightclub.

Real life

Although my stories and characters are fictional, I definitely take inspiration from real life people, places and events. For example, when I wrote the character of Harriet Lane in Falling Again, I couldn’t help but have in mind Kathleen Zellner, a real-life attorney who features in Netflix’s Making a Murderer.

My life

I don’t tend to put much of myself into my books (I’m actually very dull and boring), but there are glimpses of me sprinkled throughout my in my novels – a character’s favourite food, their dislike of confrontation, their love of Converse trainers, or their penchant for banana milkshakes – but you would probably only spot them if you knew me really well. The character who most closely reflects my life is Emily in the Christmas novella that I have just finished drafting. She’s a community centre manager, a job I used to do myself when I worked for the Salvation Army in Elephant and Castle in London.

I’m always jotting down new ideas for stories in my notebook. In addition to the three-book series and novella that I’ve just finished writing, I’ve got quite a few ideas lined up. I just wish I had more time to write them all!