What is your favourite childhood book?
I loved Enid Blyton’s Famous Five when I was around 8 or 9. Hitchcock also produced kids books, which were rather dark, and of course I loved 😉From 3 up until when I was about 7, I was addicted to Beatrix Potter books. I also loved Agatha Christie books from 11 onwards, then by my mid-teens I got into Asimov, Gibson, Heinlein and Clarke on the Sci-fi side, and John Le Carré, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy on the spy fiction side. All of these authors helped to shape the writer I’ve become.
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Who are your favourite writers?
I have a lot of authors whom I adore. I’m eclectic and read many different genres, often 2 or 3 books in different genres with science or tech or political factual books at the same time! Apart from the previous writing behemoths I’ve already mentioned. Currently, in crime there are so many I read, I feel mean just focusing on four…LJ Ross, MA Comley, Emmy Ellis, MK Fararr are fantastic! In spy fiction, again, so so many…Mick Herron, James Stejkal, Don Bentley, David McCloskey. In sci-fi, I love Richard Dee’s work as he’s so original. James Rosone knocks all his warfighting sci-fi WW3 books in the Monroe Doctrine series right out the park! There are many other genres I enjoy including romance, mystery, and horror – a great writer of all three is Kristina Gallo, who writes in English despite her native tongue being Croatian. A tales of the unexpected vibe, only darker and much better 👍Another is Zoe Rosi – her graphic writing I love!

What have you written to date?
I have written a 5-book political spy sci-fi serial, called The Trusted (book 1) Thriller Series. It opens with a married couple Sam & Ellie Noor. He’s a diplomat and she’s a successful tech businesswoman. Only neither are what they seem. It’s not giving away spoilers to say Sam is an MI-6 field operative and Ellie has a barrage of secrets of her own! The series follows more a style of a tv serial, with no tidy wrap-up at the end (only in book 5!) – and whole bunch of questions! If you enjoy your fiction unraveling, revealing and expanding, you’ll love the epic no holds barred steroid-fueled roller coaster ride known as The Trusted (part 1), The Dominant (part 2), The Resonance (part 3), The Refracted (part 4), and The Sum (part 5).
The world-building that has created the Trustedverse enables characters to flow into prequels (stories/events happening prior to The Trusted’s March 2017). I wrote Operation Snowdrop as a giveaway to secure email sign up to my Newsletter ‘Fearless Spies, Amazing Realms and Ice-Cold Killers’. However, with increasing work & pressures, the Newsletter hasn’t taken center stage recently 😓

I also wrote Operation Oystercatcher as part of a major box set ‘Dead Silent’ securing international acclaim as a spy writer and USA Today Bestseller status. Currently I’ve rewritten Oystercatcher (dropping Operation from the title), and expanding the storyline beyond the novella word count, to at over 120k. Another big story, with Sam, Ellie and the goodies up against Salim & Sabena et al… the very, very bad baddies! Oystercatcher has no sci-fi (inter-dimensional beings are kept at bay!) and is pure fast moving political, spy tech action! I’m on the last couple of chapters after my Editor’s feedback, so almost finished.

Next on the horizon is another spy novel in the Trustedverse.

And then… something completely different. Inspired by the CFA Halloween short story writing challenge, in which I created a whole new set of characters, and a never done-before crime story, I’ve decided that DCI David Cavendish needs a wider exposure, and he’s going to be part of a new series launched in 2024, where the focus will be cold case murders. The short story ‘The Cold Star Killer’ will be entrée to my writing, provided free of charge on Amazon from next year!

What are you working on at the present?
Another spy action thriller in the Trustedverse that is packed to the brim with non-stop brutal action, tech advances and political shenanigans. With the usuals, Sam, Ellie, Kinley, Salim, Sabena and Russo. It has a code name WB3Y. I’ll tell you more later!

What genre do you write?
Up until the CFA spooky shorts, I only wrote spy – sci-fi fusion fiction. It’s very graphic, but everything that is included has a reason. Nothing is gratuitous- despite how things initially read! Unraveling that reason is mind blowing for the reader! I’ve been told, by more than one former CIA operative what I write is ‘relentless and never lets up’, that ‘I’m the future of spy fiction’, ‘my writing is breath-stealing’. All high praise by those in the know. I am a little worried when some said by book 2, ‘their PTSD almost kicked in as a result of the book!’ They’re THAT intense! If you are squeamish, don’t go near my books!

What draws you to this genre?
I understand the genre. It’s close to me. What I’m involved in. The tech inventions I use in my books, I take from fact. Only I extrapolate the current ‘art of the possible’ to create tech jaw-droppers! I understand the science, having lived and breathed Sci-tech for almost 30 years, and therefore can play on potential, but all the tech in my books is thought through. That’s what makes it so authentic… and in the words of another SF operator ‘rather scary 😧‘

What made you decide to sit down and start something?
Years ago, when I was a kid, about four and a half, my grandfather (who’d had died that evening but I didn’t know) came to me in a dream, said I’d be a writer, and inspired me to write my first poem:

Beautiful Sleep:
When I sleep, my beautiful sleep
I see and hear things in my dreams
Of faces I no longer see
And voices I no longer hear
In my sweet, beautiful sleep

I gave it to Mom and Dad and they were gobsmacked. From that point on, I knew I’d be a writer. A few years after that, I sat in Dickens chair in Bleak House, and declared to all rather stunned around me: ‘I was going to be a writer and would run an empire!’ Well, so far… only the first bit has kicked. Not sure about the ‘empire bit’. World domination anyone 🤣Yeah I was a bit of precocious little brat at times!

Do you have a special time to write?
Not really. I have a very intense, pressured day job being Ops & Strategy Development Director at the UK’s Innovation Institute (IKE), which requires considerable international travel, working with government, amongst other things. I also manage Sam’s (my husband) Mom’s care regime, and also run the household which is like running another business in itself. I write when I can, in a little note book I always have near me, or else grab notes on my phone. I write when the inspiration hits me. It could be a continuation of an existing chapter, or something I need to remember or could use. Music helps me. I write a lot in the evening. The CFA Spooky Short I wrote between Wednesday, Thurs and Friday evening (between 2230 -0100), Sat all day!! (1000 – 0000), Sun (0800-1000). When the inspiration and creative energies align with me, I speed write. An immediate outpouring. It’s a wonderful feeling. Getting less with the intensity of work (as work starts 0600 -2200), most days, and I’m truly knackered! But I still have an immense drive and passion to write!

Do you write every day?
No – but wish I could.

Where do your ideas come from?
Can’t say. That great connected consciousness of the universe may be 🤷‍♀️

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer to see where an idea takes you?
Everything I write is intricate, complex and inter-twinned. I plot characters, scenes, tech I’m inventing etc., all out in mindmaps. Sam my hubby says they’re mind-melting (as opposed to mind blowing! 🤣).
How long does it take you to write a book?

Too darn long! 🤣 If I had a week clear I could get a book written, that’s about 10-15k written a day with no distractions. With all my life on full throttle, it’s more like a 12-18 months!
For your own reading, do you prefer e-books or paper books?
I read a combo, paper, ebook and audio. Audio is great when I’m on a plane and chilling on rare downtime.

What book are you reading at the moment?
Currently reading Direct Legacy b, James Stejkal – follows SF guys in Support Unit Berlin and how they get involved in the Irish conflict – ‘the Troubles’ in 1970’s; The Peacock and The Sparrow by IS Berry is pure espionage drama set in Bahrain, mixed with love, belief and searching for the greater good, amongst the tradecraft.

Do you think the cover plays an important part of the buying process?
Yes, covers are critical to be noticed. I know many authors change covers, but I invested so much into mine, I’ve kept mine going for years. Crafted in a single color to reflect book scenes and locations, I still consider them to be visually powerful.

How do you select the names of your characters?
They select themselves really. Sam is a name I love. (Well – it’s my first and only love!). Ellie is named after a little girl whose parents were told she wouldn’t last the week, such were her birth complications, both premature and critically ill. She beat all medical prognosis and survived. With her own children now, she’s a fighter and like me (I died when I was born too (very long story), but came back to life again), we’re both survivors! Salim and Sabena’s names sound like them, slithering snakes! SIS Chief Sir Justin Maide, Matt Kinley – MI-6 double agent, Quentin Ludlow, Foreign Secretary, Jonathan D Treeborne, US President and British PM Richard Ashton all have names that reflect various names I’ve encountered during my life.