I am about to publish a psychological thriller called I Came to Find a Girl.

I Came to Find a Girl looks at the dark side of The Sex in the City/Bridget Jones lifestyle. It's about what can so easily happen to a woman through no fault of her own, and it's also about getting even.

I walk my dog, write, and then walk my dog again.

Every project begins with an idea that keeps recurring. Some of my best ideas have come from dreams, or perhaps I was simply tapping into my subconscious when semi-awake. I write regularly and find that when I'm in the middle of a project it's best to write six days a week as having a whole two days off at the weekend makes it too hard to pick up where I left off.

Covers take a lot of thought. It's not easy to represent a whole novel in a cover and I think it's best to reflect the tone of what's inside. I like to take my own photographs and work with a designer on the overall look. My short story collection, LONDON TSUNAMI & OTHER STORIES has a cover shot of a block of flats near where I live. I've always had a bit of a thing about these flats as I think they look amazing at night, and of course there are so many different lives going on in that one building.

Messy, but I am trying to rectify this. I have a cork board above my desk that is filled with magazine cuttings, postcards, photos and quotes. I have: Bukowski quotes such as "Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead", a David Shrigley card that says "Everything is Good" with a huge thumbs up, another card that says "Some day I will be a famous writer", "Make art not war", and photos of my family, my dog and foxes - I love foxes.

There's a grey stretch of pebbled beach on the south coast of England that my teenage self dreamt of escaping. It was dull, and it was boring, but the best cure for that is creativity.

My dog, Basil (who is cat-size), wakes me up before I am ready.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte. It's the tone, the atmosphere - I remember reading it for the first time as I sat on a beanbag in my suburban bedroom, and I was there on the windswept moors suffering alongside Cathy and Heathcliff.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. This story of empty glamour and chasing the wrong dreams is as relevant as ever.
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway. Small and perfectly formed.
Post Office, Charles Bukowski - hilarious and what style.
Solo Faces, James Salter - what it is to be obsessed. It's about mountaineering but could easily be about writing.

At school I loved art and English and I can distinctly remember getting a buzz from writing stories, but it never felt easy - even then. I studied textile design at college and it wasn't until my final year that I realised writing was taking precedence. I've been serious about writing ever since. I have an MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway, University of London, and I write most days.

There's nothing better than when you've completed a good, productive day's writing.