My first ever book, No Matter What. I'd love to re-write that book, maybe split it into three separate books because it's so long. I'd had that story in my head for so long before I actually got around to writing it, but because it's the first ever book I'd written - and published - knowing what I know now, over 30 books later, knowing how my writing has developed over the years, I just think I could make that book so much better.
Yes, sort of. The two comedy romance novels I've written - Too Much Trouble in Paradise and Bon Voyage - both used real-life experiences as inspiration. Too Much Trouble in Paradise was inspired by the two years we spent living on the island of Tenerife, and Bon Voyage was inspired by cruise holidays we'd taken, the characters in that book inpsired by some of the real-life people we'd met on those cruises, and believe me, some of them were larger than life!
I've experienced writer's block quite a few times over the years, and what I've found when this happens is that it's best to just step away from whatever you're doing for a moment and take some time. Listen to some music, watch some TV, read a book written by somebody else, inspiration WILL come back. It's just your mind telling you that you need a break. Music is definitely what works best for me, though. Sometimes all it takes is just one line from a song and that inspiration comes flooding back!
Don't give up. If you love what you do, and you're passionate about it, don't let anything or anyone stop you. There are so many ways you can have your stories heard now, so, if you want your books out there it CAN happen. And try not to think that, just because you're not selling thousands of copies or making a living out of writing that you're not good enough. You are. And, believe me, there are people out there who WILL want to read your stories. One more thing - never try to emulate anyone else. Be yourself, learn to love your own voice. Your own style. Don't change that.
I've wanted to be an author ever since I could pick up a pencil. It all began with my love of Enid Blyton novels when I was a child, I loved the fact that you could pick up a book and escape to a different world, and from then on I knew that that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to create worlds that people could escape to, and characters that readers could escape with. I've been making up stories for as long as I can remember, but as far as writing serirously is concerned, I've been doing that for about ten years now.
