Steve Emmerson

Q: What were you like at school?

Very quiet and very boring! I was skinny and useless at sports and always, always had my head stuck inside a book.

Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?

A writer! Or a Time Lord! I wanted to travel in a TARDIS and have great adventures. When you become a writer - you become all the things that you ever wanted to be all at once.

Q: Which three words describe you best?

Steve. Emmerson. Fabulous.

Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?

You should have at least one good laugh every day. Preferably a really, really good laugh every hour or so if you can manage it.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

My most treasured possession? Hmmm... My family, I think. Can they be called 'possessions'?

Q: What do you do as a hobby?

I write when I get chance. I read when I get the time. I used to draw and paint (and sell portraits many years ago!). I'd love time to do that again but sadly I don't have much time to have hobbies these days.

Q: What strange habits do you have?

I daren't tell you that! That's rude! What a question!

Q: What’s your favourite food?

Chocolate. And chocolate. And that brown sweet chocolatie stuff - what's it called??? Oh yea - chocolate!

Q: What do you day dream about?

Writing. And Chocolate. (Sometimes.)

Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?

Getting a Doctor Who book published. Then I did it again.

Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I work as an accountant - and that's a profession that I wished I'd never attempted! (It's boring!) I'd love to be an artist. Paint pictures all day... Live in a garret and be poor and all covered in paint and look dreamy all day long.

Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?

Sometimes older - when I've had a long day in the office. Sometimes younger - when I've had a good laugh or written something gripping...

Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Elvis. Can I have two people? Lilian Gish. (She was a silent film star many decades before I was born. I think she's wonderful and I'd love to go back in time and talk with her.) Can I have three people? Shakespeare! Who wouldn't? Is it cheating to have three people? Sorry.

Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?

Honesty.

Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?

My imagination.

Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Follow your dream and never stop trying.

Q: What has life taught you?

Follow your dream and never stop trying.

Q: How long have you been a writer?

Forever. Since before the dawn of time. Since I was so little I can't even remember.

Q: Where do you do your writing?

These days in my office where I usually work as an accountant. I have an office in my home so it's very cosy. I fall out of bed in the morning and suddenly I'm at work. Magic! Hardly even have to use my legs at all.

Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?

The reviews. And the reviews. In that order.

Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

No idea. I just start to think and they all come flooding in from outer space or somewhere. There's probably zillions of me in alternate universes all thinking at the same time and somehow we all have this mystic connection so that we can share ideas. Sometimes the ideas come faster than I can write them down... ...And often, when I've started to write one particular story, the characters take over and the ideas come from *them*. They can be very unruly. You set off writing a book about one thing, and the characters make it a very different book alogether. Very annoying.

Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?

Read and watch films or TV.

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

Probably the Doctor Who books that I grew up with. All of them, not one in particular.

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

"The Remains of the Day" - by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Follow your dream and never stop trying.