Glenda Young: Five things I want my readers to know about me – and five things I don’t!

1. I love writing. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking and planning about what I’m going to write next. I’ve loved writing since I was a little girl when I’d make up stories and plays, poems and sketches. But I never knew what to do with them and so they ended up stuck at the back of my knicker drawer.

2. I have a big knicker drawer.

3. I’m often inspired to write by pictures I see, especially historic ones where those being photographed are suspicious of the camera and wary of the person wielding the camera. I also love listening to conversations on the bus.

4. I have to write in silence. Pure, utter silence. No radio, nothing. It has to be just me and the tapping of my keyboard while I concentrate fully.

5. The kettle is always on and tea fuels my writing day.

1. Being a writer means sitting around a lot at your keyboard so you need to be comfortable. Therefore, you probably won’t want to know about the tracksuit bottoms I wear with fluffy pink slippers when I sit down to write. Ah, the glamour of it all.

2. When I write an angry scene I thump at my keyboard. When I write a touching scene, I often cry. Hmm… wonder if I should write erotic fiction some time?

3. I clean my writing desk thoroughly after each book is complete. I clear my walls of all pictures, maps and plans. Before I start researching the next book, I give my writing room a good going-over. This often takes some time.

4. I don’t really have a writing room. It’s just our spare room. No-one else is allowed in and if they wander in while I’m writing they’re greeted by very unfriendly stare.

5. I still have poems I wrote when I was six, they’re in my knicker drawer.