People often ask me where I get my ideas from, and the
answer is, well... all over the place.

For Pastures New my original inspiration came from the allotments at the back of my house.

The idea for Strictly Love came from attending salsa classes. It struck me that there inevitably being more women then men at such events, this might be a good place to go if you were newly single.

So I came up with the story of Mark, a dentist who finds himself divorced, and is persuaded by his best mate Rob to go to ballroom dancing classes. (With the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing, this seemed a better fit then salsa).

Mark's story also grew out of something that happened to my husband (also a dentist) who many years ago was accused by a patient of crowning the wrong tooth. What I wondered, would happen in today's litigious society if a patient sued a dentist for malpractice? I made the patient in question a z list celebrity (or a lovely word I've stolen from Danuta Kean, a zedlebrity) who is only famous for her smile. Mark has to take her tooth out and is sworn to secrecy as the firm who employ the zedlebrity to be their "face" insist she has perfect teeth.  Which is all very well until the story gets into the papers. and the zedlebrity decides to sue....

In the meantime Mark has met Emily through his dancing classes, and both of them of them discover they are hiding things from one another.

While Rob, a serial commitment freak finds himself more and more interested in Katie, a mother of three, who is also hiding who she really is...

As ever with my writing, I have used music to try and find my way to the emotions that my characters are feeling. And my playlist this time around looks like this...

The First Cut is the Deepest, by Cat Stevens for Mark at the beginning, along with Slipping Through my Fingers by Abba, about his daughter. While Rob, who like I say, is a bit of a commitment freak, has  the fabulous Feel by Robbie Williams as his theme tune. (I've blogged more about this at: http://strictlycomedancingnot.blogspot.com

The Weakness in Me by Joan Armatrading and Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie  are the theme tunes for both Emily and Katie.

The Boys are Back in Town are for the boys' putative attempts to be jack the lads, while their lives more resemble that of the sad git in Fifteen Years, by the Levellers, a wonderful song about loss, regret and too much booze.

The Miracle of Love  by the Eurythmics, a fabulously romantic song for when Mark and Emily finally get it together.

And Sting's wonderfully poignant Fields of Gold for when they are kept apart through forces beyond their control.

While Katie and Rob get Body Talk for a moment of key temptation.

And all of them have Richard Ashcroft's amazing Song for Lovers, and Sting's Shape of my Heart.

I've now started  next book, and so far the soundtrack is looking a bit like this:

This is Where I Came In - Bee Gees
The Other Side of the World to Me - KT Tunstall
Your Love Alone is Not Enough - Manic Street Preachers
Put the Sun Back- Coral
Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
And last but not least, the incredible Pretty Amazing Grace by Neil Diamond which is at the heart of the story.

This is almost the best bit for me. The story is slowly forming in my head, and I can hear the soundtrack for certain scenes.  The KT Tunstall/Manic Street Preachers are going to feature for a couple who are still in love but are stretching that love to their limits. I listen to songs obsessively till I get that aah feel deep in the pit of my stomach, and then (and this is the hard bit!) I try to replicate that feeling in words.

It usually works, but I'm not quite sure what to do with Worried About Ray by the Hoosiers which is pretty much part of the soundtrack of my life at the moment because my children are obsessed with it, but I'm not quite sure how I can fit it into my storyline...