These questions from Anna Hedigan who is writing an incredible, and incredibly ambitious (she looks certain to make it) literary novel. And my tips to some insanely worthy writers.

Answers first:

1) What is the working title of your current/next book?

I have about seventeen, so let's go with Dead Star Shining. Or Winter Solstice. No, At A Dark Distance.

2) Where did the idea come from?

Two and a half years of scratching at my laptop. Inititally, though, someone was talking to me about being at dinner with a vision impaired man, and how good he was at eating. From that anecdote on, I was writing about a man very rapidly losing his sight.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

 Literary, but I always try to walk the line between literary style, and accessible and page-turny. It has a dead body in it, and a plane crash, a car accident, and the potential end of the world. Doesn't sound literary does it.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

 Woody Harrelson would play the tramp. Woody is the one person in the world I'd rather be. For no concrete reason I can think of. The protagonist would be played by, erm, Joaquin Phoenix. Did you see him in The Master? Incredible. The little girls would be played by the same actress, but I'm not really au fait with child actresses, you'll be glad to hear.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

What do you do about your past when you've got no future.

Or: something that actually says something about the book.

Like: How to you solve a crime when it was twenty years ago and you can't see? (Terrible)

Look it's a bit soon to be coming up with snazzy lines when I'm still trying to get the word count lower than the Bible's!

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

 Fingers crossed.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?

A couple of years, but I wrote another first draft of a book at the same time too.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I really have no idea.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Writing books is what inspires me.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

A snippet of the opening?

Friday night traffic, the first day of Spring. He double parks outside the miniaturised supermarket, a crowd gathered outside. The streets are especially busy tonight, everyone distracted by what’s in the sky -- rush hour exacerbated by heads poking out of windows, faces craning close to windscreens, little sucked fingers pointing up out of pushchairs.

The overhead distraction means double the number of accidents. Suicides take a big jump. Work absenteeism is rife, office buildings all empty swivel chairs and the hum of strip lighting. Stores sell out of basic foods, bars and pubs fill to overflowing. Old flames reignite, often only to burn one another again. Existing relationships break down or rush to registry offices.

Everything has become resignation letters and round-the-world tickets and the dog you’ve always pined for, the novel you always meant to write.

He leaves the car running, the radio bubbling with news that trees are ignoring spring. Most trees are still naked and no signs of budding. That’s in addition to the way they’ve been shedding bark and branches all winter. Even the evergreens are stripping off. 

He lurches onto the pavement, the traffic behind having to indicate, wait, then pull round his double-parked sports car. Nobody complains though, because the extraordinary has loosened the membrane between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour – the city almost united by this untoward event in the sky, the way storms, assassinations or terrorism cause the threads of community to knit themselves a little closer together. There’s more eye contact where usually gazes don’t much meet. Strangers talk on public transport, in check-out lines, at traffic lights.

His car might be one of the most exclusive on the market but it’s dinted, marked and damaged. Many of these little wreckages occurred in the last few weeks, mostly with parked cars. Whenever possible he escaped without leaving his details, so as to better avoid what these accidents signify.

His body is just as punctuated by bruises and scratches.

OK, and now for those I suggest to you are seriously watchable for their current and future greatness.

Pierz Newton John

Ruby J Murray