Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Most of my writing comes from personal experiences, memories from my past or just pure imagination but sometimes they are my own interpretation of other people’s experiences where I question, what could have brought that about or what if that happened to me?-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I begin by deciding on what the message or theme of the story shall be. For example a good moral tale, a funny twist in the tale, a heart-warming feeling, something strange to get the reader thinking or a shock! I like to sketch out the bare bones of the story and then build it up, so that it works towards a natural ending or conclusion. I find creating the characters first helps me to define what the interaction between them shall be and how they will end up as ‘goodies’ or baddies’! Sounds complicated but it isn’t really.-Your routine when writing?  Any idiosyncrasies?
My ideas and story’s development usually come to me at night, while I’m in bed. That’s when my mind whirrs and I often feel like jumping up to the computer to scribble it all down but instead I rely on a shorthand notebook in my bedside cabinet.  I like to write every day if possible, usually in the early afternoons. Sometimes I can hit the keys for four  or five hours without realising the time ticking away,  then other days I can only manage half an hour. It all depends on my mood and energy levels.   I like to have a coffee at my elbow mid afternoon, and if I’m being really naughty, a cold Fino sherry to sip at once the sun has gone down beyond the yard-arm.-Is writing your full time job?  If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is my passionate hobby and an outlet for my vivid imagination (my husband says.)   Otherwise, I love cooking. I spend huge amounts of time poring over cookery books and trying out different recipes from all over the world. I make my own bread, naans, pittas breads, crumpets, tarts and pastries as well as  jam, marmalades, chutneys and fruit curds. Each year I also marinate and produce  batches of green and black olives which my Spanish neighbours kindly give me  freshly harvested from their groves. Delicious!  I also enjoy walking  with my husband and our two rescued dogs. Swimming in our pool  during the hot weather keeps me cool and  of course I love reading and watching TV.   I also thoroughly enjoy our village’s colourful fiestas which bring out the spirit of the Spanish way of life here.-Who are some of your favorite authors?
My favourite authors are
Harlen Coben, Mary Higgins Clark, Alex Barclay, Linwood Barclay and Jane Austin.-What are you reading now?
I am reading, ‘Caught’ by Harlen Coben

-Are you working on your next novel?  Can you tell us a little about it?
Yes, I am working on my next novel. Another murder mystery, this time set in Spain under the working title of “No Sleep Till Dawn”. With the same lead character as Ebony Blood, this time Greg Williams now reconciled with his family, takes his family to Spain for a fresh start and bumps into an old flame. Her wild step daughter, Donna, hangs around with a bad crowd and the step mother is unable to tame her. Donna disappears during the town’s annual Feria and because he is fluent in Spanish and the Spanish police have little to go on, Greg is asked to help in the search for her. When a girl’s body is discovered , it is up to Greg to break the devastating news to her parents and reveal the even more shocking news that he knows who the murderer is.

Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie.  Who would you cast?
If Ebony Blood was a movie, I would cast
Brad Pitt as Greg Williams
Jennifer Anniston as his wife, Trish.
John Altman as Tony
Kevin Whately as DI. Willard
Larry Lamb as Ramsay

-Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
Both

-Favorite food?
The Spanish dish, Baked Sea Bream and Poor Man’s potatoes

-Favorite beverage?
I love a cold, dry Fino sherry

Sometimes the right choice can be the deadliest. When Ellie Watt made the ultimate sacrifice for Camden McQueen, she never thought it would be easy. But walking away with her ex-lover, Javier Bernal, in order to ensure Camden’s safety has brought a whole new set of dangers. With Javier’s plans for Ellie growing more secretive by the moment, Ellie must find a way to stay ahead of the game before her past swallows her whole.

 Meanwhile, Camden’s new life is short-lived. Fueled by revenge and pursued by authorities, he teams up with an unlikely partner in order to save Ellie. But as Camden toes the line between love and retribution, he realizes that in order to get back the woman he loves, he may have to lose himself in the process. He might just turn into the very man he’s hunting.

                Javier shut the door behind me and flicked on the tall standing lamp in the corner, kitschy Mexican décor. “What side of the bed do you want?” he asked.

Then he proceeded to take off his suit. He flung the jacket onto an armchair across the room and began unbuttoning his shirt. I didn’t know where to look, my cheeks growing hot like I was a naïve teenager. I’d seen him shirtless before. Hell, I’d seen and felt every single part of that man. Still, it didn’t make the feeling go away.

“Feeling bashful?” Now his tone was smug.

I looked up and his shirt was off. His body was pretty much the same as I remembered, but wider, in a more athletic and lean kind of way. He’d grown into it and taken great care of his body over the years. His abs and arms looked like he’d do chin-ups in his spare time, yet it was still very elegant and subtle. His skin was a dark bronze, shadowed by the lamp.

“No,” I answered.

“Good.” And then his pants dropped.

And I’d totally forgotten he liked to go commando.

“Oh my god,” I cried out, shielding my eyes and facing the wall. “Please, put some pants on. Or underwear.”

“Say ‘Oh my god’ again, I liked the sound of it,” he said and I could hear him coming closer. “It reminds me of old times.”

“Javier, I’m serious.”

“When are you not serious, Ellie?”

I kept my eyes clamped shut until he started shuffling through the drawers. “Okay, okay, calm down. There, I have pants on now.”

I bent down and snapped up my pajama bottoms and a t-shirt then walked past him to the door, not wanting to risk a look in his direction. When I came out of the bathroom, after a long, hot and much-needed shower, he was already in bed with the lights off. This was exactly what I was counting on. I wanted to go to sleep on my side of the bed and be done with it. No thinking about the situation, no chit chat.

I carefully closed the door and eased my way across the room, my bare feet padding on the woven rugs, the moonlight outside the open window illuminating my passage. With the sea breeze coming in and the sound of the fishing boats rising and falling in their berths, the whole thing was soothing. Even romantic.

I crawled in, pulling only the sheet over my body and faced the wall. The moon was bright on my face.

After a few moments, when my heart rate had started to calm and I was beginning to forget where I was, Javier called out softly. “Angel?”

I wanted to pretend to be asleep. I wanted to ignore him. But he’d used a name I hated and I was sick of hearing it.

“Please don’t call me that,” I whispered back, pulling sheet closer around my shoulders.

He turned over in the bed and suddenly he was right behind me, causing the hairs on my neck to rise. “Why not?”

I tried to steady my breath. “I’m not your angel.”

“You’re someone’s angel. God’s.”

“God’s? How can you call me an angel when you think I’m no good?”

He was silent for a moment. Waves crashed outside.

“There are fallen angels, too. Angels with dirty wings.”

“Lucifer was a fallen angel,” I pointed out.

“You’re right. But Lucifer had no moral code. You and I, angel, I think we fell somewhere in between all of that. We made our place. Our own home.”

I closed my eyes at his words, my soul and heart and everything getting sucked back into a vortex of memories, all bright, shiny, and good. Memories of him and I together, memories I thought I’d done away with.

His lips were at my ear, his warm hand on my shoulder, holding me in place rather than giving comfort. Instead of stiffening, my whole body relaxed into it.

“We evolved, Ellie,” he whispered, sending shivers down my back. “And we’ll keep evolving.” Then he moved away, back to his side of the bed, cozying up under the covers.

I didn’t fall asleep for hours.