ONE
My husband calls me ‘Dog Woman’. Don’t worry, it’s a compliment. I was brought up with dogs and I’ve had rescue dogs all my adult life. Some of the strays I’ve taken in have had real problems, but they’ve all responded to love, patience and a strong pack leader (the same can’t always be said for the husband!) All my dogs have taught me far more than I have taught them and rescued me time and again.
Ruth Hogan
TWO
In the words of Crowded House, always take the weather with you. You can’t always choose what life throws at you, but you can choose how you deal with it and you can take your own sunshine with you wherever you go. I have a sign on my fridge which pretty much sums it up. It says – No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and never give up.
THREE
I love listening to film soundtracks. Not the songs, but the music. Soundtrack music needs to tell a story, like writing a book with but with music. I don’t listen to music when I’m writing, but I often listen to soundtrack music when I’m thinking about plotlines or specific characters. Some of my favourites are Edward Scissorhands, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pride and Prejudice and Chocolat.
FOUR
I believe in ghosts. When my first dog died, I know that his spirit stayed with me for so long as I needed him. I also know how ridiculous that sounds, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. My family background is Irish on my dad’s side, and he says that my writing, love for tea and potatoes, and believing in ghosts is his legacy. He says it’s the Irish in me. As a boy, he was brought up in a house where the piano used to play by itself and a teaspoon was regularly seen floating in the air in the kitchen.
FIVE
I used to play the violin. I was quite good. I played in several youth orchestras and really enjoyed it. What I didn’t enjoy was lugging my violin to and from school on the bus. But I probably would have carried on playing if I hadn’t had to change teachers. My first teacher was a wonderful lady who inspired and encouraged me. Unfortunately, when she moved on, she was succeeded by a wispy-bearded young man, who wore a tank top knitted by his mother, and brought muesli to work in a Tupperware container. The lessons were torture for both of us, so I cut and ran. But in a strange twist of fate, now, one of my closest friends is the owner of an antiquarian bookshop. When swapping tales of childhood, we discovered that we both played in the 2nd violins of a local youth orchestra at the same time. No doubt, we were the naughty ones, giggling at the back!
SIX
Learning to read is one of life’s greatest gifts. I was brought up in a house of books and my mum taught me to read before I started school. I remember my dad reading Treasure Island to me at bedtime and doing different voices for all the characters. The ability to read is the passport to infinite other worlds, both factual and fictional, and any book you love is a true friend.
SEVEN
I love the simple pleasures of a traditional British seaside resort, like walking on wooden piers, eating vinegar-soaked chips out of newspaper, riding on the carousel horses and paddling in chilly waves. And I particularly like to do these things in winter, when the crowds have gone home. My ambition is to, one day, own a beach hut, and my ideal writing room would be a space with floor to ceiling windows which looks out over the sea.
EIGHT
I can write legibly with both hands. I was born left-handed, but when I was nine years old, I shut the middle finger of my left hand in the door of the passage between my parents’ house and garage. The door was blown shut by the wind and my finger was mashed! I had to go to hospital every day to get the cumbersome dressing changed and there were certain things that having a middle finger the size of a small courgette made very tricky. But as a somewhat impatient individual (nothing has changed there!), rather than let the bulky bandage prevent me from doing things, including writing, I simply changed which hand I used. When I write with my left hand now, it’s perfectly legible, but the writing of a nine-year-old.
NINE
I’m an Autumn and Winter woman. I must be one of the few people who look forward to the evenings growing darker and colder, and the clocks going back. I love kicking my way through piles of fallen leaves and every year I harbour the same unlikely hope for snow; not just a sprinkling, but a thick, fluffy, sparkling blanket. Autumn and winter are the seasons of log fires, woolly jumpers, roast potatoes, Christmas and my birthday. What’s not to love?
TEN
It’s essential to have a passion in life; something that makes your heart pound and your head spin. Something that’s so important to you that it’s worth risking failure in the attempt to achieve it. Like most writers, I’ve been rejected by agents and publishers and told that my work wasn’t good enough. But I could never stop writing even if I tried, and even when I’m not sitting at my desk with pen in hand or typing on my laptop, I’m writing in my head. When I’m out and about I’m always watching people and listening to their conversations, and whatever I see, I’m always juggling words in my head trying to work out how I could describe what I’m seeing in an original way. I’m blessed that writing is not only my passion, but also how I earn my living and I love every working day. Which is just as well, because for me, every day is a working day!
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan is published by Two Roads on the 26th January, price £16.99 hardback. The book has been selected for the WHSmith Fresh Talent 2017.