Making up stories is something I have been doing since before I could read. When I was so small that those black marks on the page had to be read aloud to me I learnt that stories could be spoken and stored in one’s head. Then I had a little brother who needed a story each bedtime. So inventing, telling and later, writing my tales down was always a huge part of my life.
A liberal diet of history and literature of many kinds helps with invention, as well as watching films with historical themes. Then there are the photos I find in magazines or pictures in history books or Art Galleries.
There’s a story in every face. Sometimes I make up a character and life for the unsuspecting passenger next to me on a train or plane. They would be amazed at the transformation from their real life, no doubt…
A pair of liquid brown eyes, the turn of a head, a certain smile or gesture; they all stick in my mind and eventually appear on the page somewhere.