I often get asked “where do you get your inspiration from for your stories?”

The simple answer to this is everywhere and everything – but that’s not very helpful is it?  A better answer is to say that I listen and look at the world around me constantly. I read newspapers and books, I listen to the radio and watch TV, and often pick up ideas for stories from hearing something on the news. For example;-  when I was writing Red Fever I heard on the radio the news that Somalian pirates had kidnapped a British couple and were holding them randsom. I liked the idea of having some seriously scary pirates in my story and so Toby, my hero, gets chased by a warship which fires rockets at his boat. We see the pirates later in the story bombarding Aberdeen, making my pirates very frightening!

Another source of inspiration comes from places. I live on the North coast of Scotland in an area which is steeped in history and there are lots of castles, old buildings, seaside villages, harbours, and beautiful countryside with woods, lakes and interesting places to explore.  These places are full of stories, both real and imagined and visiting them is a great idea to find a story, or even a back ground for a story as in Red Fever when I use my knowledge of Aberdeen to describe Toby’s terrifying race against time to find medicine for his sick sister Sylvie.

So you can see that ideas can come from anything and anywhere. Just keep your eyes and your ears open!