Greetings Olivia, I am so pleased to have the opportunity to interview you. Let me start off by letting you know that I loved your latest novel at Silk's Vault, Trail of Feathers. With so much adventure it kept me locked in anticipation throughout the entire book.

Thanks, Jayne. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I know that you are not from the States so rarely do I have the pleasure of learning what's going on with you and your writing. So here is my chance to catch up to you. Ready for the questions?

Ah, the curse of being in a totally different time zone from most e-book authors! There's only a few of us Brits around in e-publishing, I think. It takes time for some ideas to make their way across the pond, and e-publishing is one of them!

What was your inspiration for your novel Trail of Feathers?

Actually, it started out as something completely different. I was involved with an internet forum and wrote stories there for various people, so Trail of Feathers began as a quite light-hearted Indiana Jones type romp, written for a friend. Then it began to take shape in a totally different way, and the character of Richard barged in, the way that roguish pirates often do, and it developed from there. So I guess he was the proper inspiration! I also enjoyed the research on the Inca, as I've never formally studied the cultures of the ancient Americas, but I've always had an interest.

Have you written anything else under a pseudonym?

Yes, I have. I've published a number of academic articles and books under my real name (I'm a historian and archaeologist by training). Also, over the past few years I've written a lot of fan fiction under different names, some of which have been published in various fanzines. I still write the occasional piece, but my fandoms have always been rather obscure – recently, it's been Cantonese TV shows. A bunch of stories have been translated and published in China, which is fantastic. I've had a great reaction from those, and it's interesting to see where I am along the cultural divide, you know, being a Westerner writing about ancient China. It's very gratifying to know that 99% of the time I get the customs and attitudes right, but there's always something new to learn!

When you started off writing what genre did you start off interested in? Do you have a sample?

Because of my background, most of my stories and novels are historical or involve history in some shape or form. I'm also very fond of slash (m/m) stories – showing my fan fiction roots there! – although I do write m/f romances, too. Here's an excerpt from my paranormal m/m novel Revenant, which will be out in February from Samhain. It's a vampire story with a difference, as it's based on the Greek folklore of the vrykolakas, an undead creature out for revenge.

In this scene, the hero – a British archaeologist named Jack – hands over a human bone, part of a complete skeleton he's discovered at his excavation site. He hopes that his colleague McKeown, who's an ex-Army doctor, will be able to identify it. I hope it'll give you a taster (excuse the pun) of the whole story…

McKeown's eyes gleamed when Jack placed the cloth bundle on the table. "Is that what I think it is?"

Unable to resist a flourish, Jack tugged at one side of the cloth and let the bone roll out across the table. McKeown caught it with an exclamation of pleasure, and then held it in one hand while he fumbled for his spectacles with the other.

"Left femur of an adult male about six feet tall, and I'd say no more than forty years old," McKeown began. "No evidence of fractures, although lesions in the bone would suggest some genetic or contracted form of debilitation."

"I thought anemia," Jack said.

McKeown nodded. "Hmm. Very likely. Malaria is a possibility too, of course." He turned the femur around and peered closely at the ball-joint. "See here – a touch of inflammation. The muscles surrounding the area have shoved the bone out of alignment."

"Under what circumstance could that happen?"

"Some kind of trauma, usually. A fracture or a break, and we have neither on this bone. Perhaps our man was compensating for an injury to the right leg?"

Jack shook his head. "There are no breaks on the other leg."

"Well, normally this kind of inflammation is consistent with surgery for a major fracture that requires reduction and immobilization of the limb," McKeown said, fingering the ball-joint. "A major fracture takes up to twelve weeks to heal – longer in the Sudan, since the men necessarily had to walk about and shoot at the bloody Mahdists – and during the time of immobilization, the bone can become inflamed if it's misaligned."

Jack put his chin in his hands. "What if I told you that the burial was contracted?"

"It makes no difference. Inflammation cannot occur after death."

"Are you certain?"

McKeown looked at him over the rim of his spectacles. "Are you calling into account my abilities as a surgeon, lad? I've set more broken limbs than you've had hot meals."

Jack gave a placatory smile. "No, nothing like that. It's just that some cultures cut through sinews and soft tissue to enable a contracted burial, and -"

"If they did that, there'd be no inflammation at all," McKeown interrupted. "It'd be like cutting the strings on a puppet to bend it whichever way you wanted. No, this was done in life. For some reason, he was kept immobilised for at least three months – and if it wasn't due to trauma, then…" McKeown let his voice tail off.

They both looked at the bone, and then Jack said softly, "There's something else. Look again. I hope the two things are not connected, but… I begin to get the feeling that they might be."

"Huh. Feelings have no place in archaeology," McKeown snorted as he peered again at the femur. "A science, that's what it is. Or didn't bloody Dörpfeld teach you that… Good God. Those are cut-marks!"

"Yes. But only on the femurs and hips, nowhere else. I found it strange."

"It's not strange: it's butchery, plain and simple," McKeown said. "Only in those areas? That doesn't fit the type."

Jack frowned, picking at the toast again. "What type?"

"Defleshing the bones tends to mean one thing, and one thing only," McKeown said. "Cannibalism."

Jack suddenly lost interest in his food. "That's impossible."

"Not so." McKeown shrugged, and then leaned across the table to whisper hoarsely, "Last season, Arthur Evans showed me a pithos burial he'd uncovered in the foundations at Knossos. He's kept it very hush-hush for fear of what local reaction would be. It's the skeleton of a young child, with cut-marks all over the bones."

"Ritual sacrifice."

McKeown snorted. "Ritual cannibalism."

They looked at the femur with horrified fascination until Jack asked, "But why those parts? Why no cut-marks on the tibia or humerus?"

"Because the thighs and belly are the tastiest part of the human body to eat," McKeown said, his answer so swift that Jack gaped at him in fresh horror. Seeing his expression, McKeown gave a twisted smile. "Best not ask, lad. Best you don't know."

I know you are an author, what else do you do? (anything, career, motherhood, editing, reviewing, arborist)

I've been a few things, in my time: an archaeologist, university lecturer, secondary school (high school) teacher, professional editor, website designer, secretary, barmaid, factory worker, housekeeper… I've also been doing some reviewing, and I've recently quit my job as I'm preparing to move to the other side of the world with my partner. That also gives me a few more months to write full-time before things get too hectic with the move!

Was there any one person or event in your life that finally inspired you to sit down and write your first book?

Not really, no. I've been writing stories since I was a child – back then I used to draw a lot, too, and so I wrote and illustrated my own comic books from school age right through to university, where I was the terror of my undergraduate department as I immortalized the professors on t-shirts, tea towels (this was very popular – I guess many students would love the chance to wipe up curry stains on their least favourite lecturer's face!) and anything else I could get away with. Then, when I started my PhD, I found writing fiction was a good way to unwind and balance the academic output.

If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?

That's a difficult one, Jayne. I have bipolar disorder, and the depressions that go with that are truly horrific. Sometimes it's literally a case of one hour at a time. But I probably wouldn't change that, as in some ways I think my creativity is a compensation for the illness – and look how many other artists and writers have had it, too. I'm in good company! So instead I'll say that I'd like to change where I live, which hopefully I'll be doing anyway in the next six months.

If you could be a character from any book who would you be and why?

Wow, that's a tough one! Um, I think I'd like to be Cardinal Richelieu from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I used to read that book over and over when I was a child, and Cardinal Richelieu was one of the first historical men I had a crush on! Dumas paints him as a wonderfully intelligent and single-minded man, but he's never sinister for all his endless plotting. It's a wonderfully sympathetic portrait and Richelieu is far more interesting than that namby-pamby d'Artganan… Also, as a cardinal and a duke, Richelieu got to wear some great clothes. Just a minor point, that!

Is there any particular author you look up to?

I really admire the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. He writes with such intelligence and clarity about things that are both complex and simple. The Black Book is one of the most stunning novels I've ever read – I took a pile of books with me on a trip to China and left a book in every hotel and on every aeroplane I passed through. The only one that I couldn't leave behind was The Black Book. It's that good. His memoir of his home city, Istanbul, is just as exquisite.

Also, Pamuk was one of several Turkish authors to speak out against the Armenian genocide of 1915, and like the others, he was arrested for being disloyal to his country and will stand trial some time in the future. It's appalling that one of their most celebrated writers is treated like this, and it highlights some of the problems the EU is having with Turkey's application for membership. I'm not a particularly political person, but I do feel strongly about the fate of Orhan Pamuk and his fellow authors.

What is the one issue we face in this world that tears at your heartstrings the most?

Poverty. The gap between the rich and poor seems to get wider and wider, despite the noble talk of world politicians. It was great to see the Live8 gig last summer organized by Sir Bob Geldof, and I just wish the demonstrations at the G8 summit had had a more concrete effect.

If you ruled the world what is the first thing you would do?

Eek! I'd probably cancel national debts, for a start. Swiftly followed by an overhaul of the education and health systems currently in place. But really, I don't think I'd like to rule the world. It strikes me as a very thankless task! I think I'd rather be an eminence gris, you know, behind the throne rather than on it. Cardinal Richelieu rather than King Louis XIII!

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Write from the heart. If you don't believe in your story and characters then you can't ask your readers to believe in it, either. Get yourself a good and brutally honest beta-reader, and listen to what they say. And be prepared to keep going even when it feels like everything's against you. Oh, and it's true about developing a thick skin, too, for rejections and editorial comments – I've yet to develop this thick skin, so I find that in lieu of it, having a good hour or so of complaining to a friend over a few drinks works wonders!

When does your next book come out and what is it about?

My next book is a erotic romance novella called 'Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey', which is part of the Jaded Beasts: Monkey & Rooster collection from Midnight Showcase. It's out in November.
The heroine, Xinran, is an art thief for the Chinese government. She tracks down small items that were stolen or traded to the West, and in the story she's on the trail of a priceless Tang dynasty jade monkey statue. She goes to Athens to steal it, but the day before she plans the theft, she meets a Greek hunk called Konstantinos – and mistakes him for a tour guide! He's actually a property developer and the owner of the jade monkey, and the goddess Aphrodite has cursed him never to find love unless he takes a risk on a woman. Will Xinran be the one to break the curse, and can she rob the man she loves? You'll have to read it to find out!

Thank you so much Olivia for your time, I know my questions are a little tough at least some of them. Can't wait to hear what makes an amazing author tick.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to chat with you and FAR, Jayne. You certainly came up with some thought-provoking questions! Thank you.

The Lady & the Highwayman - out now from Ocean's Mist Press
Trail of Feathers - out now from Silk's Vault
Jaded Beasts: Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey - available in November from Midnight Showcase

Interviewed by: Jayne