I've been a storyteller since I was tiny
JJ Marsh
As a toddler, I disappeared from the back garden. They found me in a field, surrounded by curious cows listening attentively to my made-up fairytale.
Languages, literature and drama...
along with physics and biology were my favourite school subjects. I still use each of them daily. Especially biology.
Frustration drove me to crime
Female characters in contemporary crime fiction seem to fall into three categories: feisty / bitter / vulnerable-aka-dead. My aim is a renaissance of the Golden Age of Crime - DL Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie - when intelligence played a bigger role than violence. I don't write 'cosy'. I write smart.
Street theatre skills
Acrobatics, fire-eating and a full adaption of Samuel Beckett in a sleeping- bag. But I have come to terms with the fact I will never be able to juggle.
Just tell me a story
Books are my fix. I devour them in any format, averaging four a week. Our home is stuffed with paperbacks, I read ebooks when travelling and the advent of audio books means I no longer hate ironing.
Browser history
Research is the second best part of writing The Beatrice Stubbs Series. Cruise ships, Matisse, Rohypnol, CCTV, horsemeat, arms-dealers, white Rioja, Expressionism, slaughterhouses and Interpol codenames. The Internet is essential but the best sources are human beings.
View from my study
A Swiss graveyard. It's a beautiful sight; colourful, neat and well tended. There are funerals weekly and visitors daily. Watching a person look at a grave is a story in itself.
Triskele Books
I'm a founder member of an all-female author collective. We sought a third way of publishing: the high standards of the traditional model plus the creative control and speed of self publishing. We're five years old now, we've published 21 books and are about to launch a free online creative writing course and run a London LitFest.
Word Woman
As an author, journalist, reviewer and reader, I obsess over words. My current favourite is Luftkissenfahrzeug = German for hovercraft.
Best piece of advice
Mum: Chase your dreams. You'll never know what you can achieve until you try. You know the saddest word in the English language?
Me (aged 6): No. What?
Mum: If only.
Me: That's two words.
Mum: Don't be such a bloody pedant.
Originally from Wales, Jill spent time in Africa, the Middle East, Portugal and France before finally settling in Switzerland with her husband and dogs. Nowadays, in an attic overlooking a cemetery, she writes crime.
The Beatrice Stubbs Series is available as ebook and paperback. Perfect for beach binge reading.