I started writing after acquiring a disability in my 30's and having to give up almost everything I loved. Running, horse riding, dog walking and my career, which involved being on my feet. Writing was my real salvation. A chink of light in what was a very dark and very grim period in my life.
Louise Jensen
I'm a very emotional reader and writer and I wanted to create a book that takes readers through a whole spectrum of emotions. While writing The Sister I'd find myself so moved by the characters at some points I was in tears, and so unnerved at other times I got up to check the doors and windows were locked before I carried on.
I play the piano so badly that when I lift the lid our spaniel runs away and hides with her paws over her ears.
As well as writing, I also teach mindfulness through classes and via Skype. Mindfulness changed my life and enabled me to combat with the negative spiral of thinking I fell into after my accident and it allowed me to cope with chronic pain and reduce my medication.
Cheese and chocolate are two foods I'd be loathe to live without. I eat both almost every day.
My characters became so real to me in The Sister that on November 6th last year I took my husband out to dinner to celebrate Grace, my main character's birthday.
Preferring to live in the moment my husband and I ran away to Gretna Green to get married without telling anyone. Other than the wedding ceremony and wedding night in the hotel we didn't plan or book anything. We had an amazing week adventuring around Scotland and I'll never forget it.
I have three sons who are all super creative. One is an amazing photographer, another writes scripts and shoots and directs short films and my youngest is the most phenomenal storyteller I know.
I adore music, rock, folk, classical, and I go to gigs whenever I can.
When I'm writing a first draft I have to light a scented candle and listen to Einaudi piano music. It's a ritual I seem to have fallen into that I can't shake.
