Books for children

Why, might you ask, should a writer of gory thrillers start to write books for children?

Well it's a good question...

In fact, it happened almost by accident. There I was, in a kind of hiatus after my last adult novel hadn't connected as well as I hoped it would; and my 10-year-old daughter, Grace, said to me: 'Dad, can I read one of your books?'

Problem that. My adult fiction is exactly what it says on the can: adult. Far too salty for one of such tender years. But I didn't want to disappoint her.

'I tell you what,' I said. 'I'll write a book just for you.'

And that's what I did, wrote it a chapter at a time and read it to Grace, listened to her feedback and then went away and wrote the next chapter. Pretty soon, something pretty startling occurred to me. I was enjoying writing this, every bit as much as I had enjoyed writing my adult fiction; and what's more, I had finally written a character who I felt could go on to other adventures.

And the name of the character? He was called Sebastian Darke...