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I've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,' I provide a voice for someone who has died and can't speak for herself.

I have always written about characters who fall somewhere in the spectrum between solitary and totally alienated.

I thought there was something intrinsically fascinating about people who communicate for a living and are incapable of communicating in their personal lives.

I've seen a range of children's personalities, so it's easier to write about them without patronising them, I think.

Most of the characters I have in my children's books are grouchy or annoyed about something or are calling each other unfriendly names. Like my own kids, they're not honeys and sweetie pies and little angels. They're kids. Sloppy, dirty, stinky.

For the most part, my characters don't talk to me. I like to lord over them like some kind of benevolent deity. And, for the most part, my characters go along with it. I write intense character sketches and long, play-like conversations between me and them, but they stay out of the book writing itself.

I love a kind of shambling outsider protagonist who always feels like they're 'other.'

I had been struggling with how to create a child-like protagonist's voice without making it sound as though I was 'dumbing down' to the character. They are able to see events, people and places with an intensity and open mindedness that adults lack.

Stories in which the player doesn't inhabit the main character are difficult for games to handle.