I had a moment when I was about twelve years old, reading a Goosebumps book (The Haunted Mask, for Goosebumps fans out there!), when I realised just how powerful books and authors were.

I was so into the story, and the magic of books really hit me. How they can captivate and transport you. I remember turning the book over and looking at the name on the front – R.L. Stine – and realising I wanted to be an author.

I studied English Literature and Sociology at university, and then went into journalism. I had a passion for meeting people and delving into societal issues, and figured a career in journalism would improve my writing skills which would eventually help with novel writing. I completed a postgraduate journalism course and worked at a local paper before taking on various other news, copywriting, and communications roles.

My passion for fiction writing took a bit of a back seat at this time, although it was still ultimately what I wanted to do. I had a personal goal to get a book deal by the age of 30 though, so at around 27, I started to take my writing goals a lot more seriously.

I’d always liked dark fiction and horror (American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis was one of my favourites), but following the death of a close friend in my twenties, for a long time, I only wanted to read uplifting books. I got into romcoms and liked their upbeat, chatty tone.

So I decided to write a book in this vein. I set up a writing group in Greenwich, where I was living at the time, for feedback and support, as I wasn’t keen on doing a creative writing master's (I’ve always been very self-taught). With my feedback group and a stack of books on creative writing, I threw myself at my goal.

It took a few attempts, but eventually I finished a romcom I was proud of. I sent it to various agents and publishers, and funnily enough, I got a call from a Big Five publisher at 4.30pm the day before my 31st birthday offering me a book deal, meaning I'd managed to meet my goal of getting a book deal by 30 in the nick of time!

Over the next few years, I wrote four romcoms for this publisher, and also self-published a few, but at this point, my reading and writing tastes were starting to get darker again.

I was tiring of romcoms and wanted to write something dark and gritty. A general sense of frustration was building up in me, and I ended up going from writing sweet happily-ever-after books to penning an extremely dark novel about a woman who savagely kills bad men. This book was Pretty Evil, which you can read about here.

Since Pretty Evil came out, I’ve written more dark books, including Courier, All Expenses Paid and Someone’s Watching Me, and I feel at home as an author of dark fiction. Perhaps it's a legacy of my news reporter days, but I find I enjoy writing about current, zeitgeisty topics which challenge both myself and hopefully the reader. At the moment, I'm working on a few novels which I hope to share more about soon.

Outside of writing, I’m passionate about art. I paint a lot, doing abstract paintings. I often do this while listening to audiobooks, so it feeds back into my writing life. I live in Oxford, UK.