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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. To begin with, why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself \u2013 where were you born? Raised? Schooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was born in the south of England in a county called Berkshire, not far from Windsor if that helps put a pin in the map. As a child I was a bookworm, my nose was forever in a book, a love I inherited from my mother. Every week we would trek to the library and come home with an armful of new books to read in every genre possible, though my favourite soon came to be fantasy. I enjoyed school, though failed my 11+ and didn\u2019t get into a grammar school, but I did get to go to University of Southampton and graduated with an honours degree in Politics and International Relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If I remember right, at twelve, I wanted to be a marine biologist, as I was enamoured with the idea of swimming with dolphins, by eighteen, I didn\u2019t have a clue and went off to university, and by thirty, I was married with a child on the way and working the 9 to 5 corporate life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t remember having any strongly held beliefs. I certainly didn\u2019t know that I would ever write a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. What were three works of art \u2013 book or painting or piece of music, etc \u2013 you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My main writing influence was Mary Stewart and her beautiful prose. Her turn of phrase was so easy to read and yet resonated with me, and I wanted to write like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the fantastical worlds and relatable characters of David Eddings<\/a> in his Belgariad and Mallorean series. The characters were so distinctive, and trait driven, their actions and reactions really made sense to me. And then Gustav Klimt\u2019s painting \u2018The Kiss\u2019 was the first painting I\u2019d seen when I realised there are layers to everything, and what is on the surface is not necessarily the only meaning to be found. I was thrilled to finally go and see it at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, and the painting is truly magnificent. I could sit and observe it all day, there is so much to parse from all the detail he hid in it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I never expected to write a novel. I had always been a voracious reader but had never put pen to paper. After my divorce, I started to noodle on thoughts, and capture ideas, but I never did anything with them. It wasn\u2019t until my Mum passed away, and my daughter went off to university that I had time on my hands and the words flowed. I expect it was partly cathartic, dealing with loss and an empty nest, but I wrote six books over two years, the Sentinals<\/em> series. Then I got fed up of reading them on my laptop and thought I\u2019d like to read them as a physical book. So then, I started to explore publishing and the pros and cons of self-publishing versus traditional, and I discovered the amazing online writing community. It was a steep learning curve, and still is, but I enjoy every moment, and now, I have fifteen books independently published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Please tell us about your novel, Sentinals Awaken.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sentinals Awaken<\/a><\/em> was my debut novel and holds a very special place in my heart. The idea for the story came to me while I was walking through Burnham Beeches, an ancient wood close to where I live. The trees were so old, gnarled and twisted, and I wondered what tales they could tell if they could talk. Then I thought, what if there was someone inside the tree who was awoken, what would they tell us? Welcome to the ancient world of Remargaren where myth and legend come to life. Jerrol Haven is a captain in the King\u2019s rangers, a dedicated officer, though a bit of a loner. He doesn\u2019t work well with others, more eager to get the job done than soothe ruffled feathers. As he discovers treason at the highest levels, and new threats are revealed, he accidentally awakens a Sentinal, one of the Lady\u2019s personal guards who, so the myths say, have been sleeping in their sentinal trees for the past three thousand years until they are needed once more. And so, the adventure begins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/18909056.jpg\")
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