28 December: Alice Broadway

Alice Broadway, author of debut novel Ink.

Alice Broadway drinks more tea than is really necessary and loves writing in her yellow camper van. She hates being too cold or too hot, and really likes wearing lipstick and watching terrible Christmas movies. Alice has a Theology degree and lives in the North with her family. Her debut novel Ink publishes in February.

Name three things on your Christmas list this year! A fountain pen – because I’m obsessed with them. A fancy handmade mug. I drink so much tea. Any and ALL books. I’ve asked for 642 Things To Write because I’d like to use it as a daily writing warm-up, journally thing.

Christmas is a time of family traditions – what are your best (or worst!) family traditions? I LOVE Christmas traditions! I like the little things like bacon sandwiches for breakfast and I always hated that we weren’t allowed to open any presents until after lunch. It felt like torture. Now, we do family Christmas discos, but I’m not sure how much longer my kids are going to put up with it.

What is your favourite story to read at Christmas? I love reading The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. It’s like an advent calendar with a new chapter every day and it’s magical and spiritual and ace.

If you could have Christmas dinner with anyone (alive today or person from history) who would it be? Oh gosh, well if Barack and Michelle are in need of company they are very welcome at my house. I’d also really love to chat to any of the kings who ended up mummified in ancient Egypt, but I think we’d end up putting everyone else off their food when we talked about brains being scooped from noses.

Ink is your debut novel, the first of a series. It must be like the best Christmas present in the world to be on the brink of your book birthday. How will you celebrate? It is the nicest feeling. I feel so lucky I can hardly believe it. I think celebration is definitely going to include lots of cake. I don’t have any tattoos and, because of all the tattoos in the book, I sometimes I think I should get one to mark the moment.

Speaking of tattoos, Ink features tattoos as a central part of the narrative. If you had to choose a festive themed tattoo to have on your own skin, what would be and why? Ooh, maybe some sparkly fairy lights or a really bleak wintery scene. Or maybe I’d just be covered in candy canes.

Reader’s question from students at Warden Park Academy; did you get to choose the cover of your book? It was really nice actually. The designers at my publishers, Scholastic, came up with the design and sent it to me, saying ‘tell us what you think’. I was really nervous that I was going to have to say ‘urgh I hate it’ but if you’ve seen it, I think you’ll understand that I just gasped and said ‘I LOVE IT’. It’s a cover that expresses the feel of the book and gives glimpses of the story without giving anything away and I adore it.