I guess I can call it unconventional. I like experimenting with different styles and forms to give the reader a better reading experience and to give real insight to my character's personalities.

The first story... Umm, I loved reading Asterix and Obelix comics. The impact was mostly felt by my Mum, because I was inspired by Getafix and made magic potions in the kitchen and created a huge mess. They always tasted disgusting. But what else would you get if you mixed milk, black pepper, cordial, herbs and spices, eggs, flour and orange juice in a big pot? I didn't get any superpowers either, disappointing!
I collected all of the 'Choose your own Adventure' series as well. I think I was only 3 books short till getting the whole set! My Mum ended up selling it though. Before high school I read a lot of young adult horror stuff like Christopher Pike and the old R.L Stine stuff before he wrote Goosebumps.

Too easy, my mum is a brilliant artist. I feel like I'm sounding like a mummy's boy now! I just tell her my idea, she makes a few sketches and hey presto! Her cover for 'Intertwined in China' is fantastic I think.

1986 by George Orwell - Classic.
Hitler's Pope by John Cornwell - Eye opening.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - A real traveller's story.
Light my Fire by Ray Manzarek - Great account of Jim Morrison's life.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Shows the darker side to our psyche.

Anything about crime/ mafia/ serial killers. I have a deep fascination with anything about crime.

I had a Sony e - reader. But with tablets, IPADs and the like you can read anything in any format by downloading programs like Kindle reader, Cool reader for EPUBs etc. I use Cool Reader.

I will publish it next week. But one way I'll market is by facebooking to my friends and family. Because my book is about China, I am going to send copies of it to review in ex-pat magazines in cities around China. They are interested, but it may be too fiesty for those magazines to be allowed to publish a review without getting in trouble with the authorities because regulation is so strict there. We'll wait and see.

Messy. I see post-it notes with random messages to myself as I write this.

I grew up in middle-class suburban Melbourne. There was not much going on there so I liked to daydream and imagine quite a lot. I lived in The Netherlands when I was 20, caught the travel bug and lived in China throughout most of my 20's. I guess China was obviously the biggest influence for 'Intertwined in China'. There is something different about the place. It has an energy of its own. It's hard to describe and 'Intertwined in China' was my way to describe what it's like living there.

I did a creative writing class in year 9. I got an 'A' for one of my books. So I started at around 13 years old or so. But I remember writing a diary in year 6. So about 11 years old. That was the only age I ever kept a diary for some reason. Maybe I was nervous between the transition from primary to secondary school. I don't know.

"Intertwined in China" revolves around five main characters in a 24 hour period whose destinies rely on each other's movements. These characters are loosely based on real people I met in China. I wanted to write about the feelings of travelling and being an ex-pat, but also being a local Chinese and their opinions of ex-pats and the way they behave. I hope readers will get strong emotional reactions and get into the character's lives like I did when writing them.