About

Hmm, what can I tell you? I’m forty four years young, very happily married, live in Stoke on Trent and I have a three year old Plummer Terrier called Flynn.

My mum told me that when I was a young nipper, I always had a book in my hand. As soon as I was in from school, I would sling down my school bag, flop onto the settee and lose myself in something magical. She would try to get me out to play, ‘get some fresh air’, she’d say, but I just wanted to spend time with Enid Blyton (The Magic Faraway Tree), CS Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Dorothy Edwards (My Naughty Little Sister).

Some things never change, apart from I can’t flop onto the settee whenever I please – or at least I try not to do it for too long. My to-be-read pile gets taller by the day, but that’s more to do with the fact that I now try and follow in my hero’s footsteps by trying to create believable, likeable characters of my own. I’ve always done some form of writing for as long as I can remember. At eleven, I was honoured by Staffordshire County Council after winning my one and only writing competition. I was one of twenty finalists out of 60,000 entries. My ‘claim to fame’ is that there was an award given out at my old primary school every year in my name for the best essay written.

When I started to take writing ‘seriously’ I bought my first electronic typewriter on tick from the catalogue. Each week, I paid ten pounds off the balance. I remember it cost me £240 way back in 1987. I then moved onto an Amstrad PC and began to write short stories. After a huge number of rejections, I gave up and concentrated on living my life. Well, they say writing is all about life experience.

I’ve done a huge number of full time jobs and in 1997 I became a housing officer for the local authority. I did that for eight years and that was where the idea to set my book in Stoke on Trent came from. Roll on another few years and here I am now. I have been writing novels on and off for ten years (actually that’s a fib, it was the same one that I wrote over and over for the first few years). I was prompted to change my genre from women’s fiction to crime thriller. And this is where I came into my own. Suddenly I could write exactly what I wanted to write – that life isn’t always a barrel of laughs.

One last thing. As soon as people find out that I was once a housing officer and that I’ve written a novel based in my home town, the next question is always ‘is it based on the estate you used to work on?’ That’s usually followed by ‘have you put any real people in the book as characters?’ The answer to both questions is no. I would never have worked on the estate that I write about. It’s far too rough for me. So it figures that the characters and the place are fictitious too. The people on the estates I worked on were nothing like the people I write about.

Random stuff about me

My five favourite television programs - Criminal Minds, The Secret Millionaire, The X-Factor , Dexter and Miranda.

My first job was working in the staff restaurant at British Home Stores.

My five favourite books – ooh, that’s hard. Sushi for Beginners, Marian Keyes, Broken by Daniel Clay, Two Women by Martina Cole, Dead Like You by Peter James and Dark Side by Belinda Bauer.

If it’s appropriate, and sometimes when it isn’t, you’ll find me in heels – the higher the better.

I’m wearing skinny jeans for the second time in my life. I first wore them when I was sixteen and just leaving high school, ouch.

Three jobs I’ve done – printer, building society cashier, a housing officer.

I’ve been married for twelve years.

Although Taunting the Dead is the first book of a series, it is actually the fifth book I have written.

My three favourite films – Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, Home Alone

My favourite music? Anything R&B, anything with soul. I actually love most of the boy bands, some of the girlie bands, my laddie from Stoke, Robbie Williams and, of course, my favourite group, The Jam.