Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Kerry Wilkinson!

Bio: 

    Kerry Wilkinson has been busy since turning thirty.

    His first Jessica Daniel novel, Locked In, is a number one ebook bestseller, while the series as a whole has sold one million copies.

    He has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults, a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter, plus the standalone thriller, Down Among the Dead Men.

    Originally from the county of Somerset, Kerry has spent far too long living in the north of England, picking up words like 'barm' and 'ginnel'.

    When he's short of ideas, he rides his bike or bakes cakes. When he's not, he writes it all down.

    Find out more at: http://kerrywilkinson.com, http://facebook.com/JessicaDanielBooks and http://facebook.com/SilverBlackthorn

What he has written: 

     Locked In (Jessica Daniel, #1), Vigilante (Jessica Daniel, #2), Reckoning (Silver Blackthorn, #1), The Woman in Black (Jessica Daniel, #3), Think of the Children (Jessica Daniel, #4), Playing with Fire (Jessica Daniel, #5), Thicker Than Water (Jessica Daniel, #6), Behind Closed Doors (Jessica Daniel, #7), Crossing the Line (Jessica Daniel, #8), Scarred for Life (Jessica Daniel, #9), Something Wicked (Andrew Hunter, #1), As If by Magic (Jessica Daniel, #2.5), For Richer, For Poorer (Jessica Daniel, #10), Renegade (Silver Blackthorn, #2), Watched: When Road Rage Follows You Home, Down Among the Dead Men, Something Hidden (Andrew Hunter, #2), Resurgence (Silver Blackthorn, #3), January, April: A Jessica Daniel short story, February, March: An Andrew Hunter short story, The Killer Inside (Detective Jessica Daniel, #1) and No Place Like Home.

Now on to the Interview!

1) How old were you when you started writing?

    One of my earliest memories is from primary school, where we wrote out a story. We decorated the cover by cutting up potatoes into various stencil shapes and and then pressed paint onto the cover. I have been writing to some degree pretty much ever since, firstly as a journalist - and then fiction.

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works?

    Probably entertainment. Technology has moved so quickly even in the past five years; let alone the past thirty. With competition from phones, streaming, tablets, apps, games - and everything else - it's pretty much essential to entertain.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

- Write! The more you write, the better you'll be.

- Don't force it. If you're stuck, go do something else and allow your mind to wander and wonder.

- Write things down. If you see something interesting, overhear a conversation you find funny, or anything else like that, make a note of it. It doesn't matter if you use your phone, or write on a pad, but you'll never know when it might give you inspiration.

4) What is your favourite novel, why?

   I don't think I have one. I'm always searching for the next thing to enjoy.

5) Who is your favourite author, why?

   Again, to a large degree, it's whatever I'm enjoying at that moment. I'm reading a terrific Clare Mackintosh book at the moment - and that's off the back of a fab Louise Candlish novel. I don't finish books I'm not enjoying - in fact, I rarely get beyond about 10% if I'm not into the story. If I finish a novel, I've enjoyed it. Then I go through phases of reading various genres, whether non-fiction, YA, thrillers, comics, or whatever else.

6) What are your favorite pastimes besides writing?

    I ride my bike a lot - around 15,000km a year! It's good for letting the mind drift from what I'm currently working on. Other than that, it's watching English sports, annoying my wife, generally getting out and exploring.

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most?

    My mum - because she's the one who gave me books to read (which were, admittedly, largely to shut me up).

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list?

    Well, number one was write a book and number two was live in a different country - so I've sorted those out. I think I'd like to have a go and stand-up...but I'm likely better at writing than performing. I'd like to do some completely ridiculous endurance athletic feat, like hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, or climbing Kilimanjaro. I'm not sure. I have a really short attention span - and tend to simply do things, rather than plan them too much.

9) What is your funniest childhood memory?

    Aww, man. I'm telling you - when you hit about 30, you can barely remember what you did yesterday, let alone two decades, or more, ago. This is far more of an in-joke between us but me and a friend were in the same cricket team. We were involved in a run-out that concluded with me being in - and him being out. To this day - 20 years on - I say it was his fault. He claims (incorrectly ) it's mine.

10) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be?

     Everything is going to be all right in the end.