As a bookish only child I was always reading and writing. The first specific incident of writing I can remember is winning a school prize at age six for a story called "Bonkers the Witch" - when my grandmother died thirty years later, I found it in her jewellery box, carefully folded and preserved. I wrote for the school newspaper and my college magazine, and as an adult always chose jobs that involved writing. And I self-published my first novel in 2013.

I grew up in Singapore - my father went there in the 1960s for adventure and to run a bank - and went to an international school. This school had a large library and a welcoming librarian, and so I read and read and read. Being an international school, it taught a range of literature - in fact, our classes were called "international literature" rather than "Eng lit". And so I was lucky enough to be exposed to writing by all types of people from all over the world, which made me realise that the locations and situations may vary, but the human condition - what we fear and what we strive for - is universal.

Like many indie authors, I did not choose this route - but am heartily glad that it happened. When I wrote my first novel I hawked it to about a dozen carefully-chosen agents and publishers. They all replied to my approach - which I now realise is rare - and all said the same thing: this is a very good book, well-written, but it won't sell. Thankfully the self-publishing world was really opening up at that time - 2012/2013 - and so I chose to ignore them and go ahead anyway. And now that I am a seasoned indie author (with seven novels under my belt) I don't think I could go into traditional publishing, even if they'd have me. I am too spoiled by being able to make all my own decisions rather than having to write to a brief.

I am one of those people who cannot concentrate in a messy environment. For years I shared an office with my husband who is, let's say, at the untidy end of the spectrum, and we had to turn our chairs back-to-back so that his chaos did not distract me! Now he has moved out of the office and I can control it entirely - so I have a long wooden desk with about two square metres of clear space on it. There is a vintage-style radio that I rarely turn on, but it symbolises communication. Around me I have stuck postcards and cuttings from magazines to inspire me - pictures of libraries and gorgeous holiday destinations and wonderful gardens. For greenery I have three pots of succulent plants - they're robust enough to survive my inexpert care. And finally there is a stuffed toy octopus, to remind me that self-published authors are multi-taskers, doing at least eight things at once!

"Notes of Change" is the seventh and final book in my series of Sam Plank Mysteries. Like all the others, it is set in London in the 1820s and is narrated by magistrates' constable Sam Plank. Unlike the others, it has to deal with enormous change in Sam's career: in 1829, the Metropolitan Police was created in London, essentially rendering obsolete the magistrates' constables, and Sam has to decide how to navigate this upheaval. Of course, his daily work does not stop, and when a young man is found murdered behind a gambling club and counterfeit notes start appearing at horse auctions, Sam has to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

I am still in the foothills of my book marketing adventure - I have to admit that marketing is not a natural skill of mine, and I have to force myself to stop writing and start marketing. However, I am quite imaginative, and that has served me well. I created a leaflet of the first chapter of "Fatal Forgery" (the first book in my Sam Plank series) and handed it out at my local railway station, and that created quite a bump in sales. I give talks at local libraries, and make sure to talk not just about my books but also about writing and self-publishing, as so many readers are wannabe writers as well. And if people like the person giving the talk, they are much more likely to borrow or even buy their books.