I Tell A Lie

I Tell a Lie is my seventh novel and, as with the first six, it started with a simple question: What if?
What if a school nurse was accused of hitting a child? How would that play out for her, for the child and for the school community?

I will hold my hand up now and say – I am a school nurse. This is my twentieth year working in the same boarding school in Sussex but the novel is not autobiographical! . . . That said, the role’s challenges are familiar to me.
Children move on at thirteen from my school so my main character, Anna Pierce, works in a school that goes up to age eighteen. I’ve set the story on the west coast of Scotland – a long way from Sussex! And Anna has character traits I don’t have myself.

And then there are the flaws.

We all have flaws, and while, in real life, we might never pay the price for those flaws, in fiction characters usually do. Anna is no exception. Is she someone who lies? If so, what is she hiding? And what does her accuser know about her family?
I write instinctively, and then when I have a first draft, I go back through the manuscript to see where the story beats are and work out how to fulfil the dramatic potential, ensuring the choices a character makes are what drives the plot.
I’ve always loved stories – in print, audio or on film. Human beings fascinate me. As I may have said elsewhere, a nurse’s role is fertile ground for any novelist because health professionals spend time with people when they are at their most vulnerable. I never take that for granted.

I Tell a Lie will be published in print, ebook and audio on October 15th this year. I’m looking forward to hearing what readers think! Watch this space – I will be giving away some free copies.

Stay well.