The Chrismukkah quiz winning questions and my answers. (Finally…)

Like the book cover, there is more than one version of the song You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, by various artists such as Dusty Springfield, Elvis Presley, Cher and even Denise Welch. Which one does it for you? Or as the words are the same it doesn't matter? Daniella

Dusty. Just Dusty. Her version of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is the version by which all other versions are judged and found seriously wanting. From the orchestra crashing through those majestic opening chords to the sob in her throat as she sings the last "Believe me…" it kills me every time I hear it. That said, I still think Bobbie Gentry 's version of Son Of A Preacher Man is far superior to Dusty's but let's not get into that.

I've been reading your books since DOAC was published in J17 (RIP). One of the (many!) things I love about your books is the way you deal with sex. Was it a deliberate decision to deal with sex in a non-sensationalist, non-judgmental way? Or is it just your style of writing? Jude

Well, I think that the way I approach writing sex scenes owes a lot to the fact that I wrote for teen mags and published a lot of YA novels, before I started writing for adults. The lessons I learned in my teen publishing days were that, though I couldn't be explicit, there had to be an emotional back-story to any sexual encounter; that it couldn't just be there for titillation. Sex was part of the plot but it was also part of the character development and I needed to show the impact and consequences of sex. My adult characters can have a lot more in the way of fun, sexy times, and I can be more explicit, but I genuinely believe that the sex in my novels isn't gratuitous, despite what other people may think! I also hate dressing sex up in flowery language and euphemisms so I prefer to call a spade a spade, as it were, equally when two people are having sex, they're not minding their language either and I want my sex scenes to reflect that reality.

Which secondary character, out of any of the books you have written, has intrigued you the most? I guess, to be more succinct about it, which secondary character has been your favourite? Hannah Hollman

This is such an interesting question! I've always loved the secondary characters – much preferred Willow to Buffy, would have picked Jane Lane over Daria and you can keep Sookie and Bill Compton, I'll take Erik Northman any day. But when it comes to my own books I'm so emotionally invested in my heroines to the extent that they live in my head for months on end, that I don't have quite the same kind of love for my secondary characters. I'm actually racking my brains trying to think of at least one of my bit players who really spoke to me. I think maybe I would like to write something from one of the male characters' points of view, just because they're always described in such great detail but it's always by someone else and that someone is often what we literary types call an unreliable narrator. I think that's why I like sneaking characters from past books into cameo roles so we get to see them in a different way. And one of the main characters in Unsticky will have a big supporting role in my fourth grown-up book, but I can say no more than that.

One of the things I love most about your books are the pop-culture references (I so, er, don't have a spotify playlist of the Pretty Things songs!) So I wondering what your one must hear song, must watch film, and must read book are? Beth Eades

That's simply not fair! I couldn't possibly narrow it down to my most favouritest ever ever song, film and book. It can't be done. My brain would dribble out of my ears. I will tell you my favourite songs, films and books right now though. I'm writing my next YA novel, Adorkable so it's been essential to put my teenage head back on and the quickest way I know to do that is a Juno and Whip It! double bill. I'm also in love with What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?, it's the perfect writing soundtrack because it makes me think of long, hot teenage summers and brooding, lanky boys and snippy girls who would break aforementioned boys' hearts. And, like everyone else in the Western Hemisphere, I love 21 by Adele and yes, I did get a bit choked up when she sung Someone Like You at the Brits. On the book front, I am going through a Georgette Heyer phase as I'm in the long, arduous process of transferring all my mother's Heyer novels from my Dad's house to mine. I think she pretty much had the full set. Anyway, if you're bereft that Jane Austen only wrote six novels (what a slacker) then you could do worse than read some Georgette Heyer. Her Regency novels are stuffed full of lovely historical detail and feature uppity, feisty heiresses and sardonically amused Earls who wear tight britches and take no nonsense from flighty heiresses. The last one I read was Regency Buck and I'm just about to start Black Sheep. I have to say though that my mother's Pan paperback editions have much better and racier covers than the very tasteful reissues.

What I wanna know is you obviously love writing for both teens and adults but at what point do you think "I have to make this an adult book" is it before the actual writing stage or have you started writing something without even thinking about who its aimed for and thought "crap, I cant give this to teens!"? Raimy

It happens way before then. I have so many ideas that they're usually percolating in my head for at least a year before I have a chance to turn them into books and I'm also a writer that can't write without a detailed chapter by chapter outline so by the time I do get down to writing, I know exactly who and what I'm writing about. So, as soon as I get the first nibble of an idea I know right away whether it will be an adult book or YA from either the character who pops into my head or the bare bones of an idea that suddenly grabs me. (I'm always asked where I get my ideas from, but they do seem to just arrive out of nowhere!)

Have you ever sought revenge on someone by creating (and even naming!) a horrible charatcer (e.g: someone like Ruby/Irina) after them? Hania

Not consciously, though I now realise that aspects of Charlotte in You Don't Have To Say You Love Me and the way she was the neighbour from hell, were inspired by Mr R*chford, a horrible, vile man who lived below me and banged his broom on the ceiling every time I walked across a room. He had issues. Serious issues and I used to stay late at work because I dreaded going home so I suppose I channeled that dread and discomfort in my own home when I was writing those bits. But, boy, have you given me ideas about exacting revenge on all the people who've done me wrong. Oh, yes. And Irina was not horrible, she was just misunderstood!

When you write your stories, do you ever envision high-profile actors as your main characters? If so, who did you think of when you wrote YDHTSYLM's Neve, William and Max? If you didn't, then who would you like to see play those characters? Catherine Smith

When I'm planning out a story, I see the characters so clearly in my head that they're entirely real to me. Sometimes as soon as I get an idea, I see my heroine or the love interest and as I think more, they become so clearly defined. I know how they dress, what annoys them about their hair, what lipstick they wear, what bits of their body they hate. It's such an essential part of my story-telling process that to just use an actor would feel like cheating and I think my story and my characters would be weaker. In fact, I'm quite perturbed (in some cases horrified) when people tell me that they imagined one of my characters to look like an actor or person in a band when THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO LOOK LIKE THAT AT ALL! One of my friends after reading Unsticky told me that she could imagine Ralph Fiennes playing Vaughn and now she's kinda ruined Vaughn for me. Not that I have anything against Ralph Fiennes but he's not Vaughn.

I just wanted to know what the reason behind the title Unsticky was!? It's always intrigued me and I feel like I'm missing something by not understanding it! Aimée Field

I think my editor and I were the only two people who understood the title and I've read really baddirtywrong interpretations of why the book is called Unsticky, so I'm pleased to be able to set the record straight once and for all.

So, the book starts with a quote from E.M.Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread, which may well have been where I got the idea for Grace from: "I seem fated to pass through life without colliding with it or moving it – and I'm sure I can't tell you whether the fate's good or evil. I don't die – I don't fall in love. And if other people die or fall in love they always do it when I'm just not there." From those lines, I had the idea of this girl, and later of this man, who were drifting through their lives, damaged and broken, and unable to find anyone or anything that they could stick to or who wanted to stick with them, hence the title, Unsticky.

So, there you have them, many months late for which I can only apologise. Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and especially the winning questioners, who gave me much pause for thought.

Remember, I will be appearing with Jo Carnegie at Stevenage Library on March 31st for a Girls' Night In. Tickets cost £5. Details here

OK, this post has taken years off me. I need to lie down in a dark room with a damp cloth over my forehead.

Live on

Sarra x