As we gear up for this amazing event, I’ll be bringing you author interviews so you can get to know the attending authors in more detail! There are lots and lots of authors for you to discover, not to mention, hundreds if not thousands of books! Why not grab a cuppa and sit back and relax! All while hearing more about our writers and their writing lives, inspirations – and maybe even a secret or two!
What is the first thing people should know about you?
If you bring me a cup of tea, I’ll be your friend for life, but if you give me coffee, I’ll bear a silent and unending grudge against you for the rest of all time…
Tell me which genre or trope you are most well-known for writing.
I write fantasy and paranormal reverse harem romances!
What is your favourite book (not your own), and why?
Either Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole or Play of Passion by Nalini Singh. Sorry, but I just can’t pick between the two.
Are you one of those authors for whom music is EVERYTHING and without it you’d never write?
I need it to block out the sounds of everything else, including, ironically, the sound of silence. It gives my hyperactive brain something extra to focus on while the rest of me digs around in my head for the story. I’ve had music that becomes synonymous with certain characters and scenes because I had it on repeat, which I love.
Is your desk/writing space tidy or messy?
It’s controlled chaos. It’s not going to win any awards on Instagram, but I know where everything is and some desk is visible beneath the crap.
Are you an introvert or extrovert? Or something else…?
Highly introverted except with a few close friends. I hate talking on the phone and I struggle to speak to store assistants lol.
What is your advice to authors just starting out?
Join the right Facebook groups, even if it’s just as a lurker. There is a ton of free information out there and the right groups will teach you everything from the importance of good covers and blurbs to how to write to market etc.
Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?
Budapest. Literally the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to.
If you could live inside any fictional world, where would that be?
I’d want to be a Valkyrie in Kresley Cole’s IAD world.
Your favourite place to read and/or write?
On buses or trains, but my dream is to have ‘the chair’ – an armchair so comfy and squishy that I don’t want to write anywhere else. I have yet to find this dream chair, however.
What did you always want to be when you were growing up?
First it was Indiana Jones, then a pop star, then a dancer, then a famous violinist, then a palaeontologist… basically whatever the hero of the movie I watched last was! Eventually, I had a really good English teacher who encouraged my writing, and that was it.
If writing is your full-time job, have you ever been told to get a “proper job”?
I used to get this a lot when I was part-time, but it’s tapered off since I went full-time—mostly because I’m a hermit, which doesn’t give many people the opportunity to pass judgement on my career choices.
BONUS Q. Tell me a secret about one of your books that nobody else knows yet!
I give all my main characters one ‘trait’ that they inherit from me. It started as a way to keep myself separate from them when I was learning how to write, because I didn’t want all my heroines to be cookie cutter copies of me. Now it’s just something I do for fun. It can be anything from eye colour to period cramps, but they all get one thing.
Thank you so much for your time, Marie. To connect with the author, click the graphic:
Authors at the Armouries 