What inspired you to start writing? I loved words from the moment I could read them. Any group of words formed stories in my head and on paper. A set of spelling words turned into a crime story or a ghost story. Reading the dictionary had me scribbling notes of ideas, some of which I still have. So I write because stories present themselves to me, and I’m ever grateful. This is the case to this day: My latest novel, The Underhistory was inspired by a box of old postcards!

What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I didn’t know it was a genre for a long time! I just knew I loved the stories that scared me and surprised me, the ones full of ghosts and monsters, and evil acts punished and unpunished. I loved stories that didn’t end happily, and some of my early fiction re-imagined endings to make them less predictable...