Tilda - a tea-leaf?!

If you’ve read my previous books, you’ll know I often put my characters into difficult situations which they have to get out of.

Tilda’s new adventure was pootling along nicely, shaping up as I wanted it to, and then - bam! She hit a brick wall. I got to a point where I didn’t know which way to take the story. I had two distinct paths she could tread, but I couldn’t see which one would work. I kept on writing, not knowing but hoping it would all magically fall into place.

It didn’t. A writer friend of mine said he thought it was a good thing; if I as the writer didn’t know where the story was going, it would at least keep my readers guessing! I’d played with lots of ideas with this writer friend previously, when I was VERY stuck, and he’d given me some good pointers. But unfortunately I couldn’t make them work for Tilda when I tried to write them into what already existed.

So I turned Tilda into a tea-leaf. Thief. (In Cockney rhyming slang, in case you didn’t know). You’ll understand why when you read the story.

Only problem is, things don’t go according to plan…