Describe your latest book.
What She Left tells the story of a young woman who drowns on a night out with friends. An academic then pieces together the mystery surrounding her death through the paper and digital trail she left.
The original idea was inspired by a tweet. Someone in my timeline mentioned the piece of music they'd like played at their funeral, which got me wondering: How much can any of us really learn about anyone else from social media? That took me to the idea of reassembling, jigsaw puzzle-like, a suspense story from the "footprint" someone who was part of the Facebook generation might leave. Basically, I wanted to tell a modern story in a modern way.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
Yes, I once visited the house in Wales where Dylan Thomas lived. It's a beautiful place, built on the side of a hill overlooking an estuary — and the view from it inspired much of his poetry. Of course, he spent as much time in the bar of the nearby Brown Hotel as he did in that house.
What scares you the most as a writer?
Computer viruses. I'm totally irrational about having multiple copies of a manuscript. I save it on various computers and numerous memory sticks, and even email it to other people. I'm never entirely at ease, though, unless I've got an up-to-date printout. There's something about being able to actually hold a pile of paper that reassures me.
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
"Thus they talked, and ached, and wept till sleep charmed their sorrow away."
It's from Thomas Hardy's
Tess of the D'Urbervilles and, like a lot of Hardy's work, is as much poetry as prose...