1. Please introduce yourself so that the readers will get to know you better.
I’m 32, just, yesterday in fact! I live in a place called Chelmsford, outside London but still close enough to go in and get into an adventure. I spend a lot of my time with my friends, talking absolute nonsense, which occasionally leads to a story, which I wrote down and now it’s a book!
2. What do you enjoy the most about writing?
I love that it’s a pastime that encourages daydreaming and just spending quality time with your own imagination. The best part is that I don’t need anyone, or even anything (maybe my laptop, love my laptop) to do it, I can do it alone… All I need is me and some time, fantastic. It’s the antidote to boredom.
3. What do you hope your readers take away from your book “Red Flag”?
I hope they have fun and judging by the reviews that word keeps coming up, so I’m thrilled with that. I also love the idea that the reader will form a bond with some of the characters, because I plan for them to be around for a long time!
4. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I’m a big music fan, love live shows though obviously this year they’ve all been put on hold, so I’m watching a lot of music documentaries and full shows on YouTube. Love a good crime documentary, or film, or show. Yeah a lot of Netflix, too much perhaps but it’s all research isn’t it? That and spending time with my amazing friends, honestly their lives are mad enough that if I were to write their stories down they would be panned for being unrealistic!
5. Are your book characters inspired by any real person?
Absolutely. I’ve said before I feel almost like I cheated really because the main crew are all lifted from my friends. They’re such great people, and they’re all so eccentric and wild, I’m very lucky to know them at all and glad I could include them all in this.
6. What is your favorite Quote?
John Lennon – Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted time. I live my life by that
7. Red Flag is plotted in so many beautiful places. Which is your favorite city in real and why?
I do love my hometown, which is now technically a city: Chelmsford. I was born outside Edinburgh which is stunning! But in my humble opinion, London is where its at, every type of human and every kind of adventure is waiting there for you!
8. How you got your book published?
I decided to self-publish, mainly because I wanted to have a little more control over the process and timeline. I started the publishing process at the beginning of lockdown and I wanted it to be released before I went back to my day job!
9. How do you come up with the idea to write a fiction based on jewellery heist?
It’s my favorite genre, and I think its underrated. I always believed id be a great cat-burglar as well, I loved the imagery of one woman doing the job of the entire oceans crew. I felt like without glamorizing it I could show it as a lifestyle choice of one very intelligent and skilled group of misfits.
10. Lastly, how do you come up with names for your characters?
A lot of my friends named their own characters without knowing it, we were having a quiet night out at a pub and we started talking about becoming a criminal organization (we were 90% joking) and they all picked their own names. Saying that, I’ve had to introduce some more characters in the sequel and picking names is a nightmare, having to google them all to make sure they’re not a real person!
Sassy Reviews 