Readers are everything, which sounds obsequies but it's true. Without readers, the stories I write are nothing but an emission. Readers transform the story into something magical. There's a transaction that happens between the author, the characters, and the readers that is pure alchemy.

Authoring can be very lonely and it's riddled with fears and insecurities. Fans quieten those demons; they validate the huge expense of energy, life force and time that goes into writing.

I am currently working on three projects, each very different. I am about a third of the way through Book 3 of The Meadowsweet Chronicles, called 'Devilry', I am writing the closing chapters of 'I Defy You, Stars!' which is part of the Shakespeare Collection - a series of standalone contemporary romance novels, and I am about two thirds through my adult horror novel called 'The Crow Man' which I am going to be publishing under the name John Kay.

As well as writing, I run a micro-publishing house and we are really proud to be working alongside the folks of UTOPiA, and its founder Janet Wallace, on a very exciting anthology.

2016 is seriously busy. I am also working on establishing one of the very first YA and NA Reader, Author and Blogger Cons in the UK called Chapter.Con, which is a huge time gobbler, but very, very exciting.

I've spent years studying and teaching literature so this is a REALLY hard question for me to answer. If you pinned me down and tickled me into submission, I'd have to say I really love those early modernist dystopian writers, Huxley, Goldiing and of course Orwell.

In the classics, I am a Gothic Romance girl. Stoker, Poe, Lovecraft, Shelley, Stoker, Lewis, and I also love the Brontes and Hardy (I can't stand Austen LOL)

In contemporary fiction, I love the transgressive movement - you know, the really dark stuff, Palahnuick, Ellis and Ballad, but I also LOVE the whole American Gothic of King and Koontz.

In YA, I have to read everything by John Green, who I think is one of the best writers of our generation. I am a die-hard Twilight fan and am not ashamed to say it. I am really digging the works of my indie sisters too, particularly Starla Hutchin, Carlyle Labuschange, KD Woods, Rachel Higgingson, Amanda Jason, Cameo Renae, Jo Michaels and Susan Burdorf all write with soul and write fab YA novels.

My children, my family and food. Quite frankly I am a total bed-bug. I think most of life's pleasures are to be found in the comfort of bed LOL.
When I do get out of my pit, it's to hang out with the kids doing simple things - and occasionally I glam out and head into London City, which always fills me with the most inspiring, creative energy. Walking in London is magical.
When it's not city, it's camping in our clapped out rust-bucked of a camper van, called Ruby. She is my third child and camping is my passion.

Cooking - I love cooking, and when I'm not cooking I'm doing photography, crafting, making swag; to be honest I indulge my family relationships because writing is very emotionally consuming and I have to be careful not to be absent from them; I enjoy turning on the whole domestic goddess thing every now and then, and seeing them looked after and loved makes me happy.