Welcome to our special feature Thinking in Threes, where we ask an author, agent, or editor three questions and they respond with three answers to each. Today I’m thrilled to be interviewing my friend and author Louise Gornall.

Louise is a graduate of Garstang Community Academy. She’s studying for a BA (Hons) in English language and literature with special emphasis on creative writing. Her debut YA contemporary novel, UNDER ROSE-TAINTED SKIES, will be released by HMH/Clarion (2017) And Chicken House UK. A YA aficionado, Brit girl, film nerd, junk food enthusiast and rumored pink Power Ranger, Louise likes to spend her free time hanging out with her twin sister, and adding to her extensive collection of book boyfriends.

Where are the top 3 places you love to write?

1. I love to write in bed on my phone.

2. I love to write inside my head when I’m in the shower.

3. I love love love to write outside, on my laptop, when I’m in the Lake District.

What were your top 3 “ah-has!” when writing your latest book? (And please tell us a little bit about the book for our readers!)

Hmmmm… to only pick three 😉 There were many, but my favourites are:

1. Realising I actually had something with this story. Norah, my MC, is agoraphobic, suffering with OCD and anxiety, and when I first started writing UNDER ROSE-TAINTED SKIES, I was convinced it would come to nothing because Norah’s world seemed way too small for there to be a solid story… turns out, I was very wrong.

2. Figuring out how to make *this one thing* happen when at first it seemed impossible — I so badly want to tell you more about this, but I can’t… all I’ll say is, it involved dragging Norah right out of her comfort zone.

3. Figuring out how I was going to end this sucker without compromising Norah’s character. Breathing life into Norah was, at times, soul destroying. She’s complicated, never clean cut, and I was determined to maintain that until the very last line which was tricky because at the same time I wanted to satisfy the reader.

Photo by J.E. Photography (Lancaster)

What are the top 3 best pieces of advice you ever received as a writer?

1. Read all your stuff out loud. I cannot even begin to tell you how much this helped straighten out my writing.

2. Read. READ ALL THE BOOKS! When I’m stuck, I always take some time and read for pleasure. It really helps to get the juices moving again.

3. Don’t write to trends, write what you want. I’ve been burnt by writing to trends twice now (paranormal romance/Dystopian). I didn’t even know what Rose was going to end up as when I started writing it. Turns out, I hit a trend when I wasn’t trying to.

Thank you for being on our blog, Louise! We cannot wait to read UNDER ROSE-TAINTED SKIES! ❤

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Helen Boswell loved to get lost in the pages of a story from the time she could sound out the words. She credits her dad, an avid fiction reader, with encouraging her to read ALL OF THE BOOKS on his shelves from the time she was a teenager. An author of both YA urban fantasy and NA contemporary romance, she loves to read and write characters that come to life with their beauty, flaws, and all. She is the author of YA urban fantasies MYTHOLOGY, THE WICKED, THE ETERNAL, and NA contemporary romance LOSING ENOUGH. Find out more about Helen at www.helenboswell.com.