Guest Author Interview - Abby Richards

In today's guest author interview we welcome Abby Richards, find out what she has to say below:

Thanks for taking part, tell us about yourself, who are you? And what do you do?
Thanks for inviting me! I'm Abby Richards, 28, from Bedfordshire in the UK. I taught English in a middle school for five years and I've just embarked on a full-time MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University which started at the end of September 2012.

What inspired you to start writing?
I loved reading from an early age, enjoying Jill Murphy's 'The Worst Witch' series, R.L.Stine's 'Goosebumps', Dick King Smith and 'A Little Princess' by Francis Hodgeson Burnett to name but a few. My love of descriptive language, unforgettable characters and adventure drove me to write my first extra-curricular story at 7, which I still have to this day! I continued to write stories at home and at 18 I produced my first full length novel in seven weeks while working at a factory packing the same stationary box over and over again for eight hours a day. Boredom and a love of the television series '24' inspired that novel. Every two years since then I've popped out a new book, developing and improving my craft each time, experimenting with thriller, fantasy, children's and now psychological thriller fiction, which I'm mad keen on!

If you could collaborate with any author, who would it be?
Dean Kootnz. His earlier novels, in particular 'Lightning', shocked and inspired me. He has such a vast imagination and a tremendous ability to create page-turners.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
I love getting totally absorbed in writing; hours can pass and it feels like seconds. I also love the freedom it gives you to play with language and be creative.

And the least?
Receiving rejection letters from agents, especially when they send a generic note and haven't even bothered to sign it.

What advice would you give new and aspiring authors?
Never give up! Keep writing. If you have the aptitude, the intrinsic motivation to improve and a passion for writing, read and write and practise your practice as much as possible. Read novels you enjoy creatively and critically to work out how they achieved effects you want to achieve.

What are you working on at the moment?
A psychological thriller for adults called 'Mr Keeper' about a ten year old girl with selective mutism who hears terrifying noises in the shed at night.

Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
'Blackened Cottage' is a psychological thriller set in 1875 about a young woman who needs to escape her dangerous father, find her brother and discover the truth about her family. It is written in the form of letters, diaries, confessions and first person narrative.

You can find it on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Thanks to Abby for sharing her time, on Tuesday Debra Benson will be joining us.