The latest book I have published is a young adult thriller about a damaged young man who collects dolls - human dolls. Set around a hospital in Manchester it plots his gradual decline and his compulsion to kidnap girls (usually nurses) .Follow the tension as he desperately tries to stay ahead of the law and his dilemma about what to do once he has collected his quota.

I have always had the idea for a book, but it lay dormant until I received a Kindle for one Christmas. That was the starting point which led me to a drastically steep learning curve . Knowing practically nothing about formatting or the internet, I struggled for a year until finally I gave birth to my first book.'Three Years in Starch' It is the story of my nurse training in the late'50's to early 60's . That one took off, much to my surprise and I have since written three others and am now working on the sequel to 'Three Years' telling of my travels abroad and working in war ravaged countries.

Once I had figured out Mark Coker's instructions - and that took some doing! - I found Smashwords to be an excellent platform from which to launch my books. To date, the most sales have been on Kobo with a few on Apple and the Smashwords site itself. Also the search engines have picked up on my work, which is an added bonus.

To see my own creation in print first, then to look back and see how much I have learned about the internet. Also it has opened the floodgates of my imagination and I find myself looking for plots in everyday situation. It's like a renaissance.

I rarely meet people who have bought my books but I am eternally grateful that they have done. I think of them as likeminded people and It is my readers who have made me an author.

My next book 'Following the Drum' is a sequel to 'Three years in starch' . I have written five chapters so far, I hope to have it ready by early next year. It tells of my travels and work in Cyprus when the EOKA troubles were ongoing, Berlin when the wall was up, Malta after the British had pulled out the first time, Singapore when Siagon fell and Cyprus again just before the Turkish invasion. The problem is, I will do anything to distract myself from the nitty gritty of writing, even to the extent of writing this interview!

Undoubtedly CJ Sansom for all his Shardlake books.Franciose Sagan for her elegant novels - although she may be difficult to find. The historical novels of Phillipa Gregory and Doris Lessing for 'Summer before the Dark'

I browse through Kindle and Smashwords as well as reading blogs and doing google searches. I try to keep a balance between free books and paid ones .

Yes. When I was training to be a Relate counsellor I was inspired to write a short story based on the interaction in a marriage. I didn't have the confidence to do anything with it and it's still in a cupboard somewhere.

I keep a notebook by my bedside for ideas that come in the night, my husband has got used to me jumping up occasionally to jot something down,if I don't it's forgotten by the morning. I try to write at least 1000 words a day but sometimes I fall woefully short. There are good days when I can write a whole chapter though.

Louisa Alcotts 'Little Women', it made me cry.