INSPIRATION, IDEAS & ICE-CREAMS

  INSPIRATION – A few years ago I wrote a short story about two people in their sixties. My characters meet at a fairground, and are mature enough to see past the differences in their backgrounds to fall in love.
Then I began to wonder about the man’s former life, as you do, and started writing Helter-Skelter. The trouble is, I went back to his boyhood, and taking him all the way to sixty would have made the book too long, so after this novel there’s a sequel!

IDEAS It’s odd what triggers a story. The first novel I wrote was inspired by the strange and wonderful rock formations on Tenerife, and the variety of rock colours.

A small book I wrote for my grandsons grew out of a drawing I did of their garden. Yet there are others that pop out of the ether seemingly at random, leaving me to wonder, “Where did that idea come from?”

ITALIAN ICE-CREAMS - I borrowed two children today so their parents could have a quiet couple of hours and I could be Nanny Liz for a while. We walked along the beach and had Italian ices. Mine was yogurt and mango, the six-year-old chose vanilla, and the three-year-old had – yes, you’ve guessed it - chocolate. They wanted to sit on the sea wall and the sun melted the ices quicker than they could eat. Quite a lot of the chocolate ended up on the wall.
When we went to throw a fist-full of wet wipes in the bin an elderly woman smiled indulgently; “The little one enjoyed her chocolate, didn’t she?” We had made her day!