Researching and imagining myself as characters in that era, which in my case is early Victorian, especially the Crimean War. Some people think I'm old enough to remember first hand - I sometimes feel that old!

While working on 'Blood on their Petticoats, I learned a lot about the women whose soldier husbands went off to the Crimea. I started with them readying themselves, then the trauma of the draw on the dock to see if they could board - only six women per one hundred men. Their journey to Varna, and then on to the Crimea, where they trekked across to Sevastopol and Balaclava. I have tried to weave my fictional characters stories into the war time-line.I have a working title, not very original, 'MUD on their Petticoats', can't think of any other title at present, but it does sum up that time in history. It is very slow going because of the research. I cross reference everything through diaries and letters from that age. I also have a supernatural Victorian/modern day story started,

I work very slowly, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, then double check and edit, and edit, etc . I really do envy those who can write a story without all the faffing.

I'm old, I like the 19th century writers, but I think Wilkie Collins is my favourite.

I didn't start writing until I was in my fifties. My first story went into the local free newspaper, my second into an anthology for new writers, my third won a smallish competition, and my fourth became a runner-up in a larger competition.

My cats. When you get to my age, which is 73, there's no reason to rush, except THEY get impatient. I have been a chairperson.secretary of a writing group for nine years, and that has always given me plenty to do, administering the website, www.castlewritersdudley.co.uk, working on anthologies, proofreading, etc., although I am stepping down in a couple of weeks, so the cats are going to have to be more patient!

I was absolutely useless at writing stories at school, but when I decided I wanted to write, which was in my fifties, I saw an advert in the local free newspaper for a Victorian Christmas story, I thought, 'I can do that', and I did, and it went in on that Christmas Eve, and I received a £3 gift token, I really felt like a writer - of course, reading it since, oh dear!

I've mentioned before the writing group, but as I'm now a little decrepit, I watch a lot of sport on the television - thank goodness for Eurosport! I'm not a team-game person, I love individual sports, as I was a swimmer and then an international fencer back in the age of the dinosaur.

With a great deal of trepidation. I've only had three, two I did myself for Smashwords - the first one I didn't like, the other was done by the publisher of my paperback. I wanted something similar but couldn't get it to work whatever program I used, so I made it as simple as possible, and I quite like it.