10 Things I want my readers to know about me by Rachel Elliott

I've been writing since I was a child, when I used to write novels full of pictures and cover them with wallpaper. I also spent large periods of time drawing spaceships and writing the stories of people inside them. I was incredibly geeky.

As a child, I wanted to be a cartoonist. Sadly, my drawings weren't great. But when my characters come to mind, it's a really visual process. I see them in a kind of cinematic way, in scenes, but I also see them as sketched figures. It's curious.

I also wanted to play Annie in the musical, which was strange, because I was really quiet and shy. After many nights of playing the soundtrack to the movie on my cassette player, I went downstairs and asked my parents if I could audition. They laughed.

My guilty pleasure is the power ballad. I have a Spotify playlist full of them, which I listen to when I'm cleaning.

In the opening chapter of Whispers Through a Megaphone, my main character cleans the house in her underwear and slippers. I do not do this.

It's been just over two years since I finished writing my first novel. Since then, after looking at it from a distance, I realise that so many of the characters are aspects of me. But seeing yourself in your novel does not make it autobiographical…

My earliest memory is of my mum stepping out of an ambulance, wearing a pink quilted dressing gown and holding my brand-new baby brother. I was three years old. I thought he was amazing, and still do.

I can't imagine writing a novel that doesn't feature animals as well as people, and I think this is partly because animals have always been a big part of my life. Where I grew up in Norfolk, it wasn't unusual for people to have pet llamas or pot-bellied pigs. We had dogs, cats, a hamster and a pond full of fish. A great deal of care went into that fishpond and its inhabitants. I love seeing people's relationships with their pets - the eccentricity of this.

On my desktop right now, I have a wonderful black-and-white photo of a guy skateboarding along a wide empty road, sun-dappled and lined by trees, with his dog running beside him. It's a photo full of movement, freedom and friendship, and it's deeply connected to the novel I'm working on now. A lot of my inspiration comes from photographs.

I think it's a real privilege to be in contact with readers, but I find it much easier to talk about my work than myself. I prefer to listen to other people. Perhaps that's why I'm a writer and a psychotherapist - both are specialised forms of listening. Other people are always fascinating.