Tina Baker Books

WHY ALL MY NOVELS FEATURE A CHARACTER TO BE PLAYED BY TOM HARDY I spend more time with fictional people than I do real ones. Given some of the people I’ve come across, this is not entirely a bad thing.               Even when not writing I have relationships with both imaginary people and people I feel I know because I’ve seen them on the telly. They pop up in my dreams. Tom Hardy pops up often, OBVS.               If I ever met these people in real life it would be really embarrassing – like calling a teacher mum.               I fantasise about my books getting TV or film deals and then I would meet Mr Hardy and we would discuss his motivation (mine would be obvious) and we would become BEST FRIENDS.               Which brings me to the magical power of fantasies.               Imagining I’d have a novel published, when all the evidence was against it, helped me slog through years, YEARS I say, of grinding doubt and hours in front of a computer screen deleting paragraphs I’d obsessed

      WHY I’M NOT WRITING WHAT I THOUGHT I’D BE WRITING     Anyone who knows me probably knows I’ve always wanted to write a novel. They might have guessed – based on my TV appearances and drinking days (the good time had by all!) that I might write something jolly. I thought I’d write something jolly. Perhaps, I hoped, I could be the next Caitlin Moran or Marian Keyes (even though they’re both younger than me; mind you, these days, everyone’s younger than me.) To my surprise, when not writing for a TVTimes deadline, I am truly horrible as a writer. Perhaps it was watching too many soaps. Perhaps, after being relentlessly perky on TV-am and GMTV for so many years, the dark hollow centre of my psyche had to crawl out of its hidey hole. What I write shocks me. I don’t set out to be so vile, it just spills out onto the page. I never knew I had it in me. I poke and prod at the worst nightmares and impulses and dark sexual feelings and vengeful thoughts. It’s so bad, I’m quite glad my paren