1. I am one of those people who write stories. There is a cardboard box of spiral-bound notebooks from my teens and twenties. There is another with print outs from my first ever word processor. Then there are the 5¼ inch floppy disks, the 3½ inch floppy disks and the CD-ROMS. Finally there is the folder on my PC called 'Scribble' that has moved from one PC to the next over the years.
  2. No one had ever read any of those stories and, in my heart, I never expected that anyone ever would. The world in which they were set, my world of the far future, would remain uniquely mine.
  3. When I hit fifty, I decided that I would write a story for others to read. I stuck my toe in the water by writing some fan fiction and discovered that some people enjoyed it. Then I started on Cast Adrift; a story set in my world and written with readers in mind.
  4. I once heard an interview on the radio with Ian Rankin. He was asked whether there would be another Rebus novel and he replied that he did not think Rebus would ever investigate another case. If Rebus would not do it, he could not write about it. I knew exactly what he meant. My characters only do what that character would do, however inconvenient that is for me.
  5. I know my characters but I do not always know what decisions they are going to make. Sometimes they seize control of the story and take it off in a new direction. Some of my best writing happens during those moments but it can make the planned plot line completely redundant.
  6. At any one time I write from one character's point of view. That can be tricky. Different characters see even the simplest of objects in very different ways. Consider the tea set that features in Cast Adrift. To Rae it is Ean's tea set. To Jax it contains the only 'decent' teapot that does not taint the tea. Noe covets the exquisitely decorated cups. Kip is impressed by the shape of the teapot's spout; it never drips. To Ean it is the first present that Tre gave him that Ean liked rather than pretended to like.
  7. I do not want readers to even notice my writing style. I aim for the language to be utterly subservient to the story.
  8. I often suffer from 'writer's block'. Usually it is because I have not had the time to submerge myself in the writing but occasionally it is more serious than that. My best solution so far is to jump forward in the plot line and then hope I can join the new section to the old without too much rewriting.
  9. My all time favourite author is Cordwainer Smith. He wrote science fiction in the 1950s and 1960s. He can communicate an entire world within one paragraph and make you love a character with a single sentence. I also like Jane Austen for the same reasons.
  10. I have been a scientist and now work in education. I like my job. I live in a suburban semi with my husband and two cats. We are content and comfortable, so I feel free to write the stories I want to write and I think readers will enjoy rather than ones someone else thinks will sell.

Cast Adrift by Mannah Pierce (published by Clink Street RRP £3.99 ebook) is her first published work and is available to buy online from retailers including amazon.com. The second book in Pierce's science fiction saga , Foothold, will be available later this summer. For more information please visit mannahpierce.com

Cast Adrift

Cast Adrift

by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
find me on and follow me on