1. I've been about the same height I am now ever since I was eleven years old. It made for an interesting dynamic when I changed schools at about the same time. That legacy feeling of extreme awkwardness is something I bequeathed to Sophie, my protagonist in my newest novel Afterlight.
  2. I never really spoke about this until after I wrote Afterlight, but there's a scene early in the novel where Sophie is about five years old, lying in bed trying to get to sleep, when the shining presence of a man is suddenly standing over her, looking down. She's absolutely terrified; but also certain that she isn't asleep, and she isn't hallucinating. It makes me sound a bit barking-and ask anyone, I am the most logical, rational person-but I swear that happened to me once, when I was little.
  3. I'm allergic to dust. I love old books and libraries, but I can come away from just touching an old book with foxed pages, or a mangy dust jacket, and I'll be sneezing.
  4. I like going "off road" when I write. By that I mean I have an overall plan for the plot, and I generally know how the story will end, even the last line of dialogue. But in between, I love it when I start "channelling voices" (as I like to call the process where the characters take over and start talking to each other) and going completely "off road". That's where the magic happens.
  5. I am possibly the world's most massive introvert. There are very public aspects to writing and I struggle with some of those. Lovely people ask for my input quite regularly, but I need weeks to psych myself up to do the "public speaking" part of the job.
  6. I wish I had more time to read. Actually, I wish I had more time to binge read. When I was younger I could literally read straight through from dinner until dawn. I really miss being able to do that-the luxury of saying, "You know what? I'm going to just keep going with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows until I get to the end."
  7. Allied to that wish of having more time to read, I wish I had more time, full stop. I work best when I'm running flat out for the myriad red flags different people are waving out in front of me, but it also means that I often have manic days where the amount I have to get through is like a stone weight on my chest.
  8. I'm never bored. There's always something to do, no matter where I find myself. I'm comfortable in my own company and I prefer a proper chat with a small group of close friends to a big, raucous drinks thingy.
  9. Complete strangers come up to me all the time and start telling me about themselves. Poor old Sophie in Afterlight inherited this, too. No matter that I'm always telling my kids, "Don't talk to strangers!" strangers will invariably come up to me and start nattering away and my kids will give me that sideways look.
  10. I believe in the possibility that real magic exists and I write and live my life accordingly.

' Afterlight by Rebecca Lim is published in paperback by TEXT Publishing, priced £6.99'

Rebecca Lim

Rebecca Lim