The photo was a fluke! I asked my husband to take some photos for the back cover. He took several before he started fiddling with the camera for some unknown reason. I sat patiently waiting and heard the shutter click. He hadn't even looked through the viewfinder! After the film was developed, the one where I did not pose was the most natural photo!
Before we left Scotland to live in South Wales, I set up my own business printing my watercolours and selling the prints to local art shops. A year after we moved, my brother died and I decided to write instead of paint. My brother was the inspiration for Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine but I also wanted to help children who were being bullied at school. The idea about going inside the computer formed long before I knew how the children would find their way inside. I wrote the first eight chapters over four months and then stopped writing for three months. I still hadn't figured out how to take the children into Hardwareland. I decided to just continue writing and see where the story led me and, lo and behold, the children found their own way to the Input building!
The idea to go into space came about because of the Mars exploration that was in the news in 2002. Emmelisa needed some space to have time away from Mayja Troublemaker and her gang. Real space seemed to be the perfect solution. She goes in search of her dad but, at the end of the book, realises that he's always there with her. He's part of her and part of her brother. She can't see him; she is part of him.
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