If you haven’t heard of Emma Burstall I suggest you get onto Amazon right now and order one of her books. Emma is an outstanding author and as well as loving her debut novel Gym & Slimline I also loved her second book Never Close Your Eyes. Emma is an outstanding writer and isn’t afraid to deal with serious issues. I hope she’ll have many more books out!

1. Describe your latest novel, Never Close Your Eyes, in a sentence.

Three women friends join a writing group and enter a national comptition, little knowing that one of them is hiding a 30-year secret which is about to be revealed and change every single life it touches.

2. What, if anything, are you currently working on?

A synopsis for a third novel which I’m hoping to start writing soon.

3. Where do you get your book ideas?

Talking to people, newspaper reports, playing ‘what if?’ games with myself. Sometimes I’ll read a snippet that fascinates me and turn it into a major plotline.

4. Gym and Slimline dealt with some hard-hitting issues, was Percy’s addiction something you knew of from experience of something you had to research?

I’ve no personal experience of Percy’s addiction (I don’t want to give too much away by revealing what it is!) so I had to do lots of research. It was fascinating exploring a world that I knew so little about. I’m now quite an expert!

5. How did you get published, how long did it take?

I wrote about 30,000 words of Gym and Slimline (my first novel) and was lucky enough to get taken on by an agent straightaway. She advised me to finish the book before she sent it to four or five publishers who all said no. I went back, made some changes and about six months later, I was offered a two book deal. It was a wonderful moment!

6. What are you currently reading/who are some of your favourite authors?

I like reading lots of different types of books, from classics by authors like Charles Dickens and Graham Greene to Jodi Picoult and Cecelia Ahern. Right now I’m reading Marian Keyes’s This Charming Man and I’ve just finished When Will There Be Good News? By Kate Atkinson, which I loved.

7. Are any of your characters like you in anyway?

I think there’s a little bit of me in all my female characters – but I’m not saying which bit!

8. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Believe in yourself and keep trying. It’s absolutely true what they say, that writing is 90 per cent perspiration and ten per cent inspiration. The writers I know who’ve succeeded have all persisted in the face of major knock-backs.

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