10 Things I'd like my readers to know about me by Heidi Perks

14 July 2019

One

I love being by the sea. For a time I lived in London and Birmingham and whilst I enjoyed them I always felt something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t until I moved back to the coast I realised I need to live by water. We have a beach hut and I love that I can sit in that and write too. It’s an amazing source of inspiration.

Heidi Perks

Two

I have a fear of snakes, much to my to my children’s amusement. Luckily I never passed it onto them, I know I got mine from my mum. Once when my daughter wanted to hold a python I managed to convince them I’d much rather watch the parrot show. I avoid holidays where snakes are more prevalent. It didn’t help that one time in Kenya one fell out of a tree and landed on a sunbed.

Three

My favourite film is Back To The Future. One of the best nights was going to Secret Cinema where a whole set was made up to look like Hill Valley and we watched the film while it was re-enacted around us. (I think the first rule of Secret Cinema is that you don’t talk about Secret Cinema, but they truly are amazing.)

Four

I need deadlines. When I’m writing first drafts these are wordcounts and later on, when editing, they are hours I work in a week. There’s nothing more pleasing than exceeding the wordcount targets though I have to be flexible during initial drafts.

Five

I play competitive netball, whatever the weather. In winter it can be freezing, dark and lashing with rain and yet I never consider not going.

Six

I always wanted to write a book. As a child I was forever writing poems and stories and reading as much as I could. From an early age I devoured The Famous Five and Nancy Drew and haven’t stopped reading since. I didn’t start writing ‘properly’ however until I took redundancy from a job in marketing in my mid-thirties.

Seven

I’ve learnt that you should never get your children a pet unless you want to be the one who endlessly feeds them and cleans them out. (To be fair my husband would quite rightly argue he is the one to do the latter but the point remains.) My daughter wanted a guinea pig and we now have three. Now they want a cat. And a dog. And a dolphin.

Eight

I’m one of those mums who volunteers for everything. Sometimes I think I hang around too much and have to ask my kids if they’re happy Mummy is coming on yet another school trip. They both seem genuinely thrilled I go however, so I’ll keep on until they’re not.

Nine

I need eight hours sleep a night and if I have any less I am broken. I have particularly realised this as I’ve just come back from a weekend in Spain with girlfriends. No matter that I spent hours lying on a sunbed each day, I feel like I haven’t slept in a week!

Ten

I’ve never stuck at anything as much as I have writing and publishing my first book. A good friend once told me how surprised she was that I hadn’t given up, such is my character that if there’s a corner to cut I’ll do it. It’s been a long journey full of highs and lows and many rejections, but writing is my passion and I have no idea what I would do without in my life.