Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs: Meet Author Caroline Batten

Caroline Batten is the author of #Forfeit and Nearly Almost Somebody, contemporary romances she likes to call “Chick Lit with Edge” – forget shoe-shopping and cupcakes, expect binge drinking, eating disorders and Class A drug-taking.

So let's see what Caroline has to say about herself...

#Forfeit is the sordid tale of five friends who play a game of increasingly dangerous dares. Nearly Almost Somebody is filled with Wiccan love spells, murder and local scandal. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Anywhere I can. Music, films, the Antiques Roadshow.

Really?

Totes. It’s where I saw the antique forfeit ball that Daisy rolls in the book.

Tell us your usual writing routine.

I work full-time, we have a 6 year-old daughter and we’re renovating an old farmhouse - writing routine, you say? Lol. There isn’t one. When I’m in the zone, I’ll write whenever and wherever I can, but when I’m not... life does get in the way.

Life? How much time do you spend procrastinating on Facebook?

Yeah. That.

Do you have a favourite snack when you are in your writing zone?

Does Prosecco with a sliced strawberry in count as a snack?

What was the first book you remember reading and enjoying?

Without a doubt, Jill’s Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson.

Did you have a favourite literary hero/heroine as a child?

That would be the Jill with the gymkhana. The girl was a superstar. Practical, witty, sharp, utterly dismissive of all things soppy - including her own mother’s nauseating Enid Blyton style books. She dreamed of becoming the first female MFH and so introduced me at the tender age of nine to equality and sex discrimination. And she beats the rich girl in the gymkhana. Hurrah.

What's the wine in that glass?

Er... Prosecco. Obvs.

Have you ever given up on a manuscript because it just wasn't working?

No. A few times people told me to put Forfeit in a drawer and move on, but I couldn’t. I loved Daisy and Xander too much to give up on them and the story.

Do your sex scenes make you horny?

*Blushes* A wise friend once told me to write books that I wanted to read because chances are someone else would want to read them too. Another wise friend, Kitty French told me to write sex scenes as though no one would ever read them. Put the two together...