Get to know me better through the tough, penetrating questions I wrote and asked myself.
What sort of books do you write?
Primarily contemporary young adult (YA) books with a twist of magical realism or a speculative element. My books tend to have reasonably dark themes and to examine either a facet of contemporary society I find interesting and/or mental health.
Do your books draw on personal experience?
Yes and no. I’m a fairly private person and it’s fair to say that I write fiction because I couldn’t write non-fiction, certainly not memoir. My characters aren’t me, but they are influenced by my personal experiences and by the people I’ve met.
How did you get into writing?
My writing journey has been surprisingly short and relatively painless so far compared to a lot of other people’s, however it’s not always felt that way at the time! I started writing in 2018 and signed up for a Curtis Brown Creative short course, which is where I really got the creative writing bug and ended up applying for their selective 6 month course with Lisa O’Donnell whose advice, honesty and encouragement was invaluable.
I was also lucky enough to stumble over WriteMentor, the most encouraging and supportive writing community for children’s and YA writers, and benefitted from various courses through them as well as free mentoring. WriteMentor offer really accessible, affordable courses, so would be my go-to recommendation for anyone dipping their toe in the waters of children’s writing for the first time.
Along the way I’ve also been lucky enough to long or shortlisted in a few competitions for a couple of my books and I signed with my brilliant agent in 2020!
What do you read?
Literally anything! My go-to reads are usually contemporary fiction for all ages, but I also enjoy thrillers, fantasy, dystopian, historical and literary fiction. Some of my favourite books of all time are The Secret History, Junk, The Hunger Games, Rebecca and Wuthering Heights. Some books I’ve loved recently are Bearmouth, Piranesi and Expectation.
I regularly post about the books I’m reading on Instagram @loufinchwrites.
Okay, enough about books! What else do you do?
I craft (mainly knitting), make art, go for walks, bake, watch TV (though not as much as I’d like) and play video games. In the past I used to run a lot and rock climb, but I wasn’t particularly great at either of these things as I’m not a naturally sporty person.
I enjoy learning new skills and learning about new subjects, so I also take a lot of random courses and classes. My undergrad was in History of Art and my postgrad was in Development and Human Rights.
Where’s your favourite place in the world?
I used to travel quite a lot and loved Iceland, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Switzerland, New York and Sweden in particular, but my favourite was Sao Miguel in the Azores. It’s just such a lush, wild place with beautiful wildlife and landscape. In 2019 I decided to stop flying for environmental reasons. In the future I might fly from time to time, but certainly not every year.
You have to live in one season for eternity – which do you choose?
Autumn! Because I love pumpkin spice lattes, knitwear, the changing leaves and Halloween.
What else should we know about you?
I could happily survive on a diet of coffee and cake (at least for as long as it would take for me to die of scurvy).