What do you read for pleasure?
Non-fiction, mostly. I love history and facts, so I tend to reach for something in these categories- on pretty much any topic!*
When it comes to fiction though, I love the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and I am gradually working my way through some of the 'classics' like Dickens and Austen.
*Currenly I'm reading one book on social media marketing, another on ancient Egypt and one about unfortunate names found in the UK censuses. One day, I might manage to read a book all the way through witthout starting another...
What is your writing process?
I've always made stuff up about the people I see, the places I go or the things I've read. They generally take a bit of an odd slant (like pondering how to survive if a zombie apocalypse were to happen on the way to the shops, or wondering how the ancient Egyptians knew that mummification would get the to the afterlife - and did it actually work?). I particularly like playing with history and seeing if I can twist it to get the same results with a different set of circumstances- for example, my debut novel, 'A Conspiracy of Vampires', is based on how I think Henry VIII would react if he were a vampire and how that would explain some of his erratic behavior.
My writing process generally starts with one of these random thoughts, then I see how far I can take it whilst it still makes some logical sense, even if the logic is a bit warped. If i can spin a full tale from it, that's what I do! Then I go through and take stuff out, add stuff in, make sure it all works and generally tidy it up.
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