There were two vital bits of advice I got from my Faber editor about how to make Dreamhunter the ya book I intended it to be. one was to make sure there was as little distance as possible between the reader and protagonists. The reader had to know what the characters, especially rose and laura, were thinking and feeling. had to be with them, within them. the other thing my editor asked me to do was to write more dialogue. i love writing dialogue, but had learned writing adult literary fiction not to indulge myself too as much as i might have liked.

yes, i write in pencil, lying in bed, usually pinned down by my three cats. i then dictate my first draft onto my computer using voice recognition software. so — low tech, then high tech.

i admit that when i finished dreamhunter, i did the following:

a) looked around to see if some extra pages had fallen out

b) jumped up and down in a frustrated rage

c) vowed never to read another book ever again

d) reconsidered

e) recognised that i must have really really loved the book for it to make me feel so strongly

f) thought about how wily and tricksy publishers are, because now, not only will i buy the next book the day it comes out, even if it’s in hardback, i will also reread the first one, so i can get back in the mood

g) decide that everyone knew what they were doing in the first place, and not to question the wisdom of writers, or their editors/publishers

i could probably go through the alphabet, but that’s enough for now.